June 26, 2013

Nein, Nyet, No, No, Non, No

By William L. Gensert

There...that's "no" to the immigration bill and the coming mission creep in Syria in 6 different languages -- German, Russian, English, Spanish, French, and Italian. At least I think that's the order of the last 4 -- could be Italian, Spanish, English and French -- I can't remember. I should call the NSA, they would know, those guys know everything.

Luckily, I'm not a Muslim man between 18 and 40 years of age, or they would have no idea. It would be wrong to single out for extra surveillance those people who actually commit the terrorist attacks.

Did I just say "those people?" I must be a racist. But I digress.

Let's start with immigration:

After World War I, both sets of my grandparents left Europe and came to America, from Germany on my father's side and Sicily on my Mother's side. I have a child with a Korean girl, whom I eventually married and divorced. Over the years I have lived with an Ecuadorian girl, a Dominican girl, and a girl who was one quarter Chinese.
In my misspent youth of debauchery, I have dated girls from Jamaica, Trinidad, and various other islands in the Caribbean. In college, I had a brief fling with a girl from Guam -- which technically doesn't count since Guam is an American Territory. But... the point is I am all for people from someplace else. I am an open borders guy, always have been -- I supported the 1986 amnesty.

Throughout a career as an entrepreneur and manager, I have had probably more than 2,000 people work for me, from all over the globe. You haven't experienced the melting pot until you've had to intervene in an argument between a Russian and a Nigerian -- both speaking English, but neither one able to understand what the other was saying -- turned out they were both arguing the same point. In the end, I could have done without the hugs.

But... it was a different world then.

At more than a thousand pages long, the proposed immigration bill is a mess. Do we really need more legislation that we have to pass before we know what's in it? There should be a law outlawing proposed legislation that cannot be read in one sitting.

It is basically 'amnesty' immediately, with a quick path to becoming citizens and duly registered Democrats. Sure, Corker-Hoeven promises a fence, but does anyone really believe that fence will ever be built? Barack certainly will never build it and future congresses probably won't either.

How about this for an immigration plan: Allow the 11 million illegal aliens presently in the country some sort of immigration card -- though not a green card; those should be reserved for people who follow the rules.

This card would allow them to work on the books and also give them a path the citizenship. Collect no public benefits and pay taxes on fulltime employment for a period of 10 years, or the time it takes for whatever refund they will not be getting from their taxes, since the government will keep it as an immigration fee, to accumulate to $20,000. If there are gaps in employment, there will be a pause on the clock. Give each of them 15 years to accumulate the 10 years of fulltime employment or the $20,000 in immigration fees, or be deported.

And, with apologies to Ronald Reagan, Mr. Obama, build up that wall.

Three paragraphs, and I am not even a lawyer.

Now for Syria:

America's strategic interest in Syria is that Iran, through its puppet Assad, does not win. Yet, what is the alternative? The rebels, should they gain victory and control of the country, will almost certainly turn out to be either Muslim Brotherhood or al Qaeda.

There was a small window of opportunity, when the civil war began 2 years ago, when it would have been possible to throw our weight behind secularists in what had always been a mostly secular country. But lead-from-behind Barack, as usual, was on the golf course.

Today, with the death toll quickly approaching 100,000, the war is a humanitarian tragedy. I feel Obama's pain, now that Hezb'allah has entered the fray and turned the tide of war back in Assad's favor, and ultimately Iran's favor as well. He figures, arm the rebels -- it's low cost for moneybags Barack -- and something he has been doing clandestinely for a while anyway.

But, it's probably too late for that to work -- small arms and assault rifles are not going to reverse the losses. Assad has air superiority and soon we will be told a no fly zone is needed, which America will have to enforce.

This conflict is already a proxy war between the Sunni and Shia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, do we really want to add to that a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia? Putin doesn't have a problem with that, but do we want someone like spineless Barack Obama prosecuting a war? Remember, the only people afraid of Barack Obama are Americans. He has shown nothing but weakness to our enemies and he is the laughingstock of world leaders -- see his recent trip abroad.

The best thing that could happen is that they both lose and Assad, Hezb'allah, Iran and the Islamist rebels fight a continuous war of attrition. Yes, the loss of life would continue, but direct or indirect war with Iran is coming and if we can weaken them dramatically by removing Syria and Hezb'allah from the equation by embroiling both in the Islamic version of Vietnam, lives can be saved.

This is not Libya; this is a country with sophisticated air defenses and a formal army, not to mention Hezb'allah, which is an armed-to-the-teeth terrorist group, well-entrenched in Lebanon.

The key here is to have Obama do as little as possible, something he has shown himself to be good at. The man is incompetent and though he may have been able to get the IRS to help him win reelection, I don't think they will be much use against Syria, Hezb'allah, and Iran.

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