The Alternative

Good fences
 
Good fences make good neighbors; wise words.
A lot of hand wringing could have been avoided if our betters had taken these words to heart.
Take the potential danger of admitting Middle Eastern refugees to settle in the United States. Generally, the interventionists who contributed so much to the crisis oppose admittance of Syrian refugees (Obama being an exception; but then they wouldn’t live at his place). To take a page from the whiny college protesters, it isn’t fair.
In their support for a U.S. led world police force, interventionists by default, encourage the weakening of our border security. Our military’s job of defending our country is watered down by the impossible job of trying to stop them over there so they don’t come here. It is simply too big a world, like Chicago. In fact, our drone strikes and other aggressions inspire more Muslims to terrorist activity than they kill. The CIA’s original job of gathering intelligence would protect our country better than their present regime change and assassination programs.
In most cases, the ones in our government who destabilized the Middle East are the ones who want those folks to remain imprisoned in the chaos they created.
Our government’s insane desire to impose our way of life on a part of the world that was somewhat comfortable with ruthless dictators assassinating their neighbors to maintain order has destroyed that order.
I have a solution to the refugee crisis caused by our neo-con politicians. It may sound impossible, but if overthrowing Assad (president of Syria) and defeating ISIS, and then maintaining order in that nation is possible, why can’t Chicago be a safe place to live?
As long as the NSA, National Security Agency, has the infrastructure in place to monitor our communications in order to provide a safe place for the refugees, it could make a list of those who favored our meddling and assign refugees to their spare bedrooms. Those nation builders and busybodies would then be responsible for those they displaced. Any refugees who turned out to be productive and not dangerous would benefit their hosts, but the hosts would have to make restitution for the damage done by the bad actors.
From that point on the fences we call borders would strictly limit our government’s ability to cause damage throughout the world, and that would cut the blowback perpetrated on us. And a defense department focused on defense of the United States could do a better job at securing those borders.
Anyone who wants to travel overseas on their own dime and at their own risk outside the jurisdiction of our constitutional republic should be free to do so. Charity works better with personal involvement than when offered through a faceless bureaucracy. Who knows, maybe people whose goal it is to help Middle Easterners with their own lives and money could accomplish more than a military industrial complex that puts profits ahead of protecting American citizens.  
 
Any comments on this article can be directed to me at 4selfgovernment@gmail.com. Between the times this column is written I post a wide variety of material at www.alternativebyfritz.com. Any letters to the editor of this paper would help the discussion go public, an important part of our republic.