|
My New
Year’s resolutions:
I
resolve to worry more about
Pakistan’s
75-weapon nuclear stockpile than about global warming. I
am more worried about being incinerated by a loose nuke
than I am about the water table rising a few feet.
Yet, I
also resolve to worry more about global warming than
about democracy in Pakistan. Democracy is wonderful, but
only for people who want it and who are willing to play
by its rules. Democracy without self-discipline is a
formula for, well, Pakistan.
I
further resolve to focus more on who gets into America
from scary countries—such as Pakistan. And I wish the
federal government would do so, too, although I am not
confident. For example, four months after 9/11, in
January 2002, a Pakistani by the name of Shabbir Ahmed,
holding a long record of proterrorist/anti-American
statements, was given a “religious worker” visa and
allowed to come to the United States and lead a mosque
in Lodi, California.
Was that
such a good idea? Apparently not. In 2005 Ahmed,
suspected of keeping up his terrorist ties, was arrested
and finally deported.
So maybe
the Department of Homeland Security can have its own
resolution: to err on the side of caution on behalf of
protecting Americans, not on the side of free expression
for jihadists.
I have
more resolutions, specifically for this election year:
I
resolve to support candidates in 2008 who take seriously
what the preamble of the Constitution sets forth:
“insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common
defense.” Speaking of which, I resolve to vote for
people who understand that it’s idiotic to send hundreds
of billions of dollars a year in oil money to countries
that alternate between disliking us and wanting to kill
us. It’s hard to find any nonlobbyist American who
thinks that our current energy “policy” is a good idea,
but it’s hard to find a politician who speaks credibly
of an alternative.
In
addition, I resolve to support candidates who understand
that there are two kinds of competitiveness: economic
and military. And if I had to choose one, I’d choose the
latter—military. I can deal with a recession, and so can
you. But none of us can afford to lose a war.
If we
need to spend more money on defense, so be it. But more
to the point, we need to mobilize our technological and
industrial base—and concentrate on keeping both here at
home. Do you think it matters that Honda has built a
robot that can play the violin? Do you think there’s a
military application to such niftyness? I do, and so do
the Japanese. Imagine if we had ’bots on the ground in
Iraq, as opposed to boots on the ground.
Finally,
I resolve to love my country all the more, and to
remember that freedom isn’t free, that liberty isn’t
license, that democracy means keeping the fools out of
power. |
