Somewhere lost in the idiocy that is called public debate is the simple fact that national security and basic civil liberty have both been under assault for the past decade. Actually longer, but let's stick to the obvious that appears not so obvious to elected officials. Yes, we've embarked on a course of endless unconstitutional wars, but that has nothing to do with national security. Neither do the porno scanners at the airports.
First, I'll give a quick description of the nature of the threat posed by Islamic jihad. The threat is real, although its degree is certainly up for debate. The threat is partly caused by foreign policy, and it is also a result of increased transportation and communication technologies that have developed over the past half a century along with enhanced weapons technologies. The threat is not conventional, it is asymmetrical. Islam appears to have always been at war with other religions and has an imperialistic nature. A would-be mass murderer can simply travel to a Western country and self-detonate. A conventional offensive war can't prevent that.
It appears that the only way to deal with this threat is either to annihilate the Islamic world or diffuse and contain it. Since we aren't going to commit genocide – and no, I'm not advocating that either – we should seek containment. Diffusion of the threat does require a shift toward a non-interventionist foreign policy. While this does not mean that we need to dismantle our military, it does require a retraction of military forces from Afghanistan and Iraq at the very least. Containment requires an isolation of the threat. No matter how you slice it, there is only one way to do that. Preventing potential Islamic or other terrorist from entering the United States seems the only plausible approach. Securing national borders and a restrictive immigration policy seem like the best defense against this potential threat.
The current strategy to deal with this potential threat is seriously flawed. The Obama administration's continued refusal to secure the borders of the United States along with his lawsuit against the state of Arizona are counterproductive to national security, and in fact decrease it. Coupled with an offensive war in the Middle East that he has expanded, national security is, once again, not served. As if the absurdity of an offensive conventional war against an asymmetrical threat while refusing to defend the borders against that threat weren't enough, we now have the dehumanizing porno scanners being implemented in our airports.
Air travelers have the option of being radiated and virtually stripped naked in a full-body scanner or being groped and fondled by a TSA thug. This process apparently includes groping of the breasts and genitalia for female and male travelers. Children apparently are not excluded from this sexual assault. So in the name of national security, not only are basic search-and-seizure rights being violated, but the federal government is now engaged in sexual assault and child porn and pedophilia.
These porno scanners if not stopped now, will not stop at the airports. They will end up in every courthouse and government building in the U.S. and will eventually make their way into the American workplace in many instances. Trains and subways will eventually have porno scanners, too.
It would seem that there is a three-part strategy currently being followed. First, deal with Islamic terrorism by waging a conventional war in the Middle East. Second, leave our borders unsecured and refuse to stop or restrict legal immigration. And third, force Americans to be groped or go through a porno scanner when traveling and essentially lose all of their constitutional rights.
Which side are the strategists on?
One thing is for certain. If Republicans think that they will hold their House seats if they refuse to defend the constitutional rights and basic human dignity of their constituents, they're just as delusional as Nero is taking a vacation to India and in his thinking that the recent election results were a communication error.
How does it feel to know that your police state is being funded by Communist China? Almost makes you wonder who is occupying whom.
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Joe Sansone is the author of "Obama in Wonderland."