Charity begins at home

By Paul Sperry

WASHINGTON – The White House has collected more than $90,000 from American tykes responding dutifully to President Bush’s request to pitch in a buck to buy food and clothing for the children of Afghanistan.

I’m so touched I’m going to send in $2 to America’s Fund for Afghan Children, a dollar for each of my children.

But I’ll note that I want their contributions to go instead to a fund to help employ more immigration inspectors at international airports around the country to block any Afghan refugees from entering the United States. Hundreds of refugees reportedly have already arrived in Toronto.

The wave of Iraqi refugees that George the Kinder-Gentler let flood our shores after his “war” was one thing. We didn’t know Arab immigrants would rise up and kill us where we live. A similar influx allowed by George the Compassionate will be inexcusable.

In the press release announcing his fund, Bush said Afghanistan needs the money, because “one in three Afghan children is an orphan” and “are suffering.”

Yeah, so are the American kids left orphaned by the fathers of the Afghan kids who trained, financed and gave Allah’s blessing to the 9-11 hijackers. Why not start a kiddie fund for our kids – many of whom haven’t seen a dime yet from the United Way?

Bush argues, reasonably, that we can’t blame the Afghan kids for the crimes of their relatives.

“America’s actions are focused on destroying a terror network and are not directed against the innocent people and children of Afghanistan,” Bush said.

Innocent? You mean, like the children of Tojo’s Japan were innocent?

FDR didn’t start a Fund for Japanese Children after Japan struck Pearl Harbor and killed far fewer Americans. Harry “Give ‘Em Hell” Truman didn’t either.

No, he dropped atomic bombs on Japanese children’s heads. Were they innocent? You bet. Was it brutal? You bet.

But, afterwards, America was never attacked again by Japan.

Compassion is fine – after the war is fought and won. Bush seems to be getting it backwards. He’s dropping food rations and humanitarian leaflets and already talking about nation-building, while terrorists are still over here crippling our mail system, after already crippling our airports – and now they’re doing a good job of crippling our Congress (which may not be such a bad thing, actually). Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida lieutenants are mugging it up on Arabic television – rallying a new wave of Islamic martyrs to launch another “storm” of plane attacks against U.S. cities.

It’s now plain that Bush really is trying to fight a compassionate war, and all the nice-nice is no Machiavellian subterfuge. It’s just nice-nice.

With all due respect, this isn’t touch football, or whatever it is they do up there at Kennebunkport. It’s war. And war against savages.

You can’t fight savages nobly. You have to go medieval on them.

Quit worrying about the world, Mr. President, and start worrying about the people you swore to defend – Americans – who, in case you’ve forgotten, don’t have a security detail and don’t have Air Force One or a hardened bunker to protect them.

Remember: Charity – and security – begins at home.


Related columns:

Please, Mr. Bush, no Basrah this time

Bush’s mixed messages

If pigs could fly …

Paul Sperry

Paul Sperry, formerly WND's Washington bureau chief, is a Hoover Institution media fellow and author of "Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives have Penetrated Washington." Read more of Paul Sperry's articles here.