Special to WorldTribune.com
Liberals lie. That’s what they do. Yet, even by their standards, the Left has reached a new low.
For days, protesters have been raging against President Trump’s executive order imposing a temporary travel ban on some Middle Eastern countries. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has called it a “Muslim ban” that is “unconstitutional” and “illegal.” Rep. Seth Moulton, Massachusetts Democrat, says it’s “un-American.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pretended to cry at a Sunday news conference, vowing to overturn the ban in Congress because it’s allegedly “mean-spirited.”
They’re wrong. Trump’s ban is logical, sensible and perfectly legal. The executive order is temporary and it specifically targets seven countries — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan and Somalia. The travel ban is only for 3 months (with the exception of Syria which is indefinite). The refugee resettlement ban is only for 4 months.
The reason the ban is necessary is simple: our government needs time to design and implement the proper vetting procedures in order to prevent more jihadists from entering America.
The Islamic State has repeatedly boasted they are infiltrating the ranks of refugees to enter America — and the West — to launch terrorist attacks on innocent citizens.
FBI Director James Comey has testified under oath that ISIS is in all 50 states, and that the Justice Department has over 1,000 active investigations into ISIS terror cells. In other words, the Obama administration allowed Islamists to pour into our country.
Trump is simply attempting to restore control over America’s borders and institute proper, stringent screening procedures. This is not “fascism,” but national sanity.
Moreover, the seven countries selected were chosen from the Obama administration and Congress that specifically delineated them as the hotpots that posed the greatest terrorist threats to the U.S. homeland.
Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of Islamic terrorism. Iraq and Syria are the cradle of ISIS; both nations are engulfed in vicious civil wars where the Islamic State has carved out large chunks of territory, committing murderous genocide against Christians, Yazidis and moderate Muslims.
Libya — due to Obama’s disastrous 2011 military intervention — is overrun with radical Islamists and Al Qaida; ISIS has also established a safe haven there.
Sudan is one of the most repressive Muslim theocracies on earth; its Islamist regime has nearly wiped out the Christians in Darfur.
Somalia is a failed state that has been taken over by Islamist and Al Qaida warlords. Yemen has disintegrated into vicious sectarian civil war between Sunni and Shiite extremists; the country is not only broken but inundated with Al Qaida, ISIS and other rampaging jihadists.
The nations encompassed in the ban were not selected willy-nilly. They are the largest exporters of terrorism.
By opposing Trump’s executive order, liberals are putting political correctness above national security. There is a word for that: treason.
The president’s first goal is to protect the safety and security of American citizens. It is not to continue to allow the flood of migrants and refugees to pour into our country without being thoroughly vetted. Iraqis, Somalis, Iranians — they do not have a right to enter America.
Immigration, travel or the granting of refugee status is a privilege conferred by the host country upon those coming in. There is no universal right to migrate or travel to America. Otherwise, billions around the world would overwhelm our shores, crushing us underneath their weight.
It’s no accident that CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations, is the major organization behind the anti-ban protests and lawsuits. It is a radical Islamist group that defends Sharia law and has deep ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. They understand that mass Muslim migration is a Trojan horse for terrorists to wage Jihad against Americans.
That secular progressives, such as Warren, Moulton and Schumer, would ally themselves with such virulent Islamists reveals what conservatives have known for years: Liberalism is the ideology of suicide. In this case, it is national — and ultimately, civilizational — suicide.
Trump’s executive order is not some “Muslim ban.” It does not affect over 40 Muslim-majority nations — including Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt or Afghanistan. It also impacts many non-Muslims.
Persecuted Christians and Yazidis in Syria and Iraq fall under the travel ban. This is because it is very difficult to properly discern who are the real victims (and real Christians and Yazidis, for example) in countries with a collapsing civil authority, no reliable database and where document fraud is rampant until thorough, stringent screening procedures are set in place.
Rather than being an unprecedented assault on the Constitution, Trump’s temporary travel and immigration ban is the bare minimum needed to secure our country.
In 2011, several Iraqi jihadists (legally) infiltrated our refugee program and settled in the United States. At the last moment law enforcement managed to prevent them from launching a terror attack in Bowling, Kentucky.
Obama’s Homeland Security department ordered a total ban on immigration or travel from Iraq for 6 months.
Under President Jimmy Carter, the United States imposed a complete ban on immigration or travel from Iran following Ayatollah Khomeini’s toppling of the Shah. Yet, liberals never howled about Obama or good old Jimmy. The reason is obvious: Democrats are allowed to do a ban, Republicans aren’t. It is hypocrisy and mendacity masquerading as principle.
The Left is in shock. Trump is proving to be the rarest of breeds in Washington: He is a leader who actually keeps his promises. For decades, Americans have become accustomed to politicians — Obama, Hillary, John McCain, Mitch McConnell — who say one thing to their voters and do the very opposite for their big donors.
Trump is not just a patriot, who is willing to put America First. He is an honest politician and a genuine outsider who doesn’t care about getting praise from the political-media class. He ran and campaigned on a temporary ban. And now he’s fulfilling that promise. No wonder liberals are in a rage.
They lie so often the truth repulses them — like a Cross to a vampire. Call it Trump derangement syndrome.
Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at WorldTribune.com and the host of “The Kuhner Report” weekdays 12-3 pm EST on WRKO AM-680 in Boston.