In Defense of Bush

I wrote this in May 2006 in response to the populist conservative BDS that was rampant at the time. I still stand by it now – we knew who we were electing. The quibbles I would have with the Bush administration would be not starting the surge sooner, and the policy of appeasement to Fatah that we are seeing lately.

Venting never accomplishes much except to make you feel better for the moment. It’s time to stop the chorus of catcalls aimed at George W. Bush — we knew where he stood on immigration when we voted him into office in 2000, and we knew where he stood when we voted him in again in 2004. Please don’t even think to pretend that you never heard him utter the words “guest workers” in his campaign speeches. If I didn’t know better, I would think that some Republicans have lost will to persevere and and are now trying with the democrats to get our president impeached. That will be the result if we continue this much longer.

I am happy that some Republicans are finding out what the democrats knew by mid-2002 — that once George W. Bush settles on a principle he does not waver from it. You and I might not agree with his stance on immigration, nor his stance on border protection. Crabbing about it is ineffective, and has potential to impact greatly more important priorities. We are nearing the fifth year in the global war on terror, and it’s time folks remembered what priorities are. If you need a reminder, please go visit the milblogs, or counterterrorism blog awhile.

I would like better border protection, and an end to importing poverty, and other things, but crabbing at Bush doesn’t aid the cause a whit. Just as the Maginot line was a joke, so too in the end will be a fence on the border without interior enforcement. Yes, we should do what we can, but we cannot afford to be distracted from the war, unappetizing as it is, nor can we afford to lose the senate or house. [Note: Advice not followed, we lost both in 2006.]

If you want to have impact, please focus your efforts instead on the Senate. Focus your efforts on your local law enforcement agencies, your state and city legislatures. They after all are the ones who have decided that enforcing federal drug and saftey belt law is important, but that enforcing immigration law is something they can ignore. It would be a wonderful thing to have ballot initiatives in most states this November making it manditory for state, city, and county law enforcers and public agencies to enforce our federal laws – right now they are being selective.

In the states where they choose not to do this they will suffer over time, but maybe you can help fix your state.

Work on your congress critter to enhance process and funding between local agencies and ICE, if we were spending as much money there as we are on drug intervention, then over the next two to three years we could easily decrease the illegal immigrant population by several millions just leveraging the local agencies and law enforcement resources in place. No matter how many ICE agents we put in place, they are never going to be as effective as your local agencies.