National Insecurity

On September 11, 2001 our nation received a wakeup call like no other. We were attacked not by a nation, but by a militant organization whose stated goal is to bring their brand of Islam to the rest of the world. In the wake of that attack America went on the offensive taking the fight to the terrorist’s homelands. Our military forces drove them from their safe havens in Afghanistan and chased them from Iraq. It was clear that America was winning the war on terror.

On Christmas Day 2009 Uma Farouk Abdul Mutallab shattered the still fragile sense of security that Americans were once again beginning to enjoy. When he attempted to detonate an explosive device aboard a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit, MI he once again brought the war on terror to our shores. The fact that he was able to smuggle aboard an airplane enough explosives to rip the plane to shreds lays bare the shortcomings in our security procedures. Now once again the issue of national security is forefront in the minds of many Americans. With this attack our nation must once again address the issue of national security and make the necessary decisions to secure our nation from future terrorist attacks.

Our nation must commit to making security reforms that actually accomplish something. One such reform is to our nation’s borders. We must secure our nation’s borders, both north and south. Right now our porous borders allow more than just illegal immigrant’s access to the interior of our country. They allow a determined terrorist almost unlimited access to our nation for them to commit their heinous acts of hatred. First and foremost we must erect a border fence along the lines of those advanced by former Congressman Duncan Hunter. We must put in place checkpoints where qualified border patrol agents can operate effectively to catch those border crossers that somehow slip through the cracks.

We must reform our screening procedures at our nation’s ports. We must look at the demographics of terror to screen those that are most likely to commit terrorist acts against our nation and our allies. We must ignore the desire to avoid racial profiling when doing so could potentially harm our nation and our fellow citizens. After all, when was the last time you saw a little old lady blow up an airplane. We must face the fact that the majority of those that would harm our nation at this point in time are Muslims of Middle Eastern decent, not the grandmother in the seat next to you.

We must utilize a secure facility to incarcerate prisoners of war and terrorists. We must face the fact that utilizing the prison facility in Thomson, IL; while attractive; is not the most logical of places to imprison these soldiers of hate. By the same token, the facility at Guantanamo Bay is substandard as well. Perhaps it is time that the US reopens the prison at Alcatraz as a military facility for the incarceration of these prisoners. Basically we need to have a facility that is based on an island far away from civilized society where there is only one way in and one way out.

Unfortunately I don’t see any of these events ever taking place. Far too many of our politicians are unwilling to make the hard decisions necessary for this to happen. Instead they will continue to endanger the citizens of American all for the sake of political pandering.