Interesting to say the least, this past weekend was. Chaos at the airports, and noisy demonstrators at the airports as well. Vocal people trying to make their case to the executive in Washington D.C and the rest of the world.Showing their solidarity with the people impacted by a stroke of a pen of an executive order of our newly elected, President Trump. We all knew and said it, that President Trump will play hard ball from the get go, but gave him the usual benefit of doubt, that he will be guided by an experienced pool of talent. Perhaps, that was wishful thinking and the paranoia and fear, that I had initially labeled as over reaction was very simplistic, at least on my part.
The recent events endorse the concerns people as meritorious and well founded. If President Trump, would have given his plan of “refugee ban” some serious vetting, he would have procured, multiple opinions and he should have formulated his strategy accordingly. It seems like this whole thing was fairly ill conceived and the chaos and confusion, right from his spokespersons, to the people on the screens was quite visible. Let’s take a quick look behind this diplomatic disaster from a common person’s perspective for the sake of our discussion.
The case that President Trump is trying to build, is a perceived notion, that Islamic State (ISIS) is trying to send its terrorists in the guise of refugees. Hence, according to Obama Administration’s intelligence reports, there are seven countries that can potentially propel such a possibility. Thus, the executive order was issued, to prevent such a thing from happening at all.
Sometimes, no matter how good your intentions may be, but the way you go about your execution, really define your intention. The shoddy and hastily given, executive order was meant to signal the Trump voters and supporters, that President Trump meant business. What he says he does and does it, without fear, without any consideration of any consequences. Good campaign soundbite, but in reality not as easy as it sounds.When you try to implement a diktat, by ruining hundreds, if not thousands of lives.
I am not a member of any intelligence community so I cannot verify the veracity of the threats that President Trump has alluded to. However, the past history and its indicators do not point towards any empirical evidence of such an imminent danger. The absurdity of this episode is quite clear from the clueless or not so convincing explanations of this move.
Barring the lawful Permanent Residents, who have their entire data in the American Intelligence system, to enter the US, just because they hold a passport from the seven countries Trump has banned, is quite a knee jerk of an action. This will definitely be challenged vigorously, perhaps all the way up to the US Supreme Court. Next, as far as vetting is concerned, that vetting must be, with a probable cause or suspicion. But it has to be done for the nonimmigrant visa applicants at their respective, US Consulates and Embassies. To disallow people, who have been legally granted a visa by the US Consulates and Embassies abroad, only on a suspicion, which is unsupported by any corroborative evidence, will be fiercely challenged as well.
The argument is fairly simple, there must be evidence supportive of their connections with any terrorist organization. Without any credible evidence, issuing a blanket ban is not only counter intuitive but counterproductive as well. Before people start citing examples of other countries where a similar ban is in effect, let me add that those countries are not the United States of America. This country was once built by refugees who fled the religious or ideological persecution of their times. This land is a unique place on the face of earth.
As an American, I am extremely proud of this country and its abilities.A placed that a lot of people look up to and seek their inspiration Where compassion and generosity are the permanent staples and hard work is rewarded quite fairly. The land, that attracts the brightest minds of the world. A countrythat takes pride in its innovative abilities to transcend boundaries and barriers, to become pioneers of many prevalentinventions, discoveries and technological trends.
A country, where some bigot razes a mosque and within a week people raise enough funds to rebuild. Resilience and perseverance of Americans is unmatched and unparalleled. Every adversity, whether natural or instigated by foul human beings, is met with extreme vigor, and met head on.
To transform this country’s open culture and erection of barriers and boundaries, will invigorate natural resistance. Because, in plain and simple words, it is Un-American. Granted, that popular vote is not a yardstick that measures the Presidential outcome, but take comfort in the fact, that more than half of America, will resist if its core values are threatened. President Trump, will soon realize, that running a government, is definitely different from running a private enterprise. Here people have a say about everything. Interesting times are ahead of us. Yet, I am optimistic about the overall goodness of America. Some may find my convictions quite ostentatious, but you have to be an American to completely understand where I am coming from.
The writer is a Pakistani-US mortgage banker. He can be reached at [email protected]. He tweets at http://twitter.com/dasghar