by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online – The Corner
The humanitarian crisis on the border derived from four callous parties who used illegal immigrants as pawns for their own self-interested agendas: (a) Central American governments wanted to export “excess” population, in hopes of soothing domestic social tensions and gaining remittances from loyal expatriates in the United States; (b) Central American parents weighed the risk of sending their youth unescorted to the border, versus the upside of getting money sent back home and/or an anchor for possible citizenship, and thus were willing to take the subsequent risk with their own children’s lives; (c) Mexico for a brief spell suspended its Draconian immigration laws to ensure Central Americans passed through rather than stopped in their country, and it sort of got a strange sense of payback at our ensuing border chaos; (d) a while ago the Obama administration signaled that most immigration laws concerning children, DREAMers or not, would not be enforced, and that insinuation green-lighted the current influx. The cynical administration hoped to soothe Latino feelings, and to create pressures for “comprehensive immigration reform” before the 2016 election, as part of a long-term strategy of altering the demography of the American southwest to favor a liberal agenda. All four groups then called any who objected and wished to enforce existing federal law callous, nativist, racist, xenophobic, etc. The apparent logic is that no one will remember the self-interested actions that brought thousands to the border, only the ensuing humanitarian crisis that must steamroll through the agendas of the selfish groups on the backs of exploited children.
In a more existential fashion, the pawn strategy works in Gaza as well. Hamas’s missiles are hidden among civilians, a two-pronged policy of hoping Israel does not find them all, while ensuring collateral damage that plays well in the Western media. Palestinians are mere pawns whose lives their leaders don’t worry much about — again on the logic that why or how they are dying is lost in the media blitz and all that matters are the photos that confirm that they are in fact dying, a fact which indicts Israel.
Common to both situations is the notion of disproportionality. Facts don’t matter, given that the poorer, less capable party is always morally blameless, the more lawful and better off culpable, on the theory that the latter alone should be able to afford to make allowances and grant concessions, regardless of the facts on the ground.
Just as we have forgotten the abject amorality of Central American parents, the Central American and Mexican governments, and the cynicism of an administration not enforcing federal laws, so too we have long ago forgot that Hamas started the entire disaster by murdering three teenagers and sending rockets into Israel. Instead, all that matters in the Western media now are photos of kids in extremis on the border and Palestinians fleeing their homes. Using suffering pawns to further political agendas is tailor-made for the postmodern Western mind.
Exactly! Gibbon said it best “The Arabian who is in harmony and copious of style will not reach, in version, the European infidel.” Obama and Presidents proceeding him are not tainted by color but with no power and will not be tided to a Middle East with a female belt of chastity. The joint names of Justinian and Thedora and magistrates of Rome would have put an end to this terror. Rome was lost because of crisis on and finally inside their borders. Mohammed and the rise of Islam and the Hamas are that of the factions of Hippodrome. The virtues of Ancient Rome, like those in the Middle East are lost thanks to the license of barbarians. Obama-an foley lacks Julian’s March of success. Hamas has no license to kill in the post modern age of Antonines.
jwc
All very true.
I notice that the media sympathetic to HAMAS etc. refer to a certain proportion of the Palestinian casualties as “civilian.” The BBC is particularly given to this sort of statement It is obvious that there is no way to determine that a dead Palestinian is a civilian; indeed, even formulating a definition for “civilian” in these wretched partly-guerilla partly-civil wars is difficult. For one instance, is an unarmed man who helps smuggle a missile into Gaza a “civilian”? He is in some sense a combatant. Regular armed forces have logistics branches, and whether armed or not logistics personnel are combatants and are treated as such. In fact they are often primary targets.
And so I treat references to “civilian” deaths as clear indicators of bias and partisanship.
Vdh, hits his target again also in responding it the latest column Director Robert Rodriguez who knows cinema and gore, knows Planet Terror…is fiction. The savagery by the Hamas is a rip roaring stabbing at the Decline of the educated in Western Civilization. Why use ones fits when you can use ones wits. Why is terror in the Middle East and what is being done to Israel being allowed without at least a stab at peace talks. A box of popcorn and a front seat premiere of a showdown between an army of flesh eating mutants for the sake of spectacle is more on the lines of the Disney film the Apple Dumpling Gang compared to real life. Real machetes being used to kill the innocent shows no screen heroines. Stupidity is calling can America stay out? The American Cowboy needs to ride in with the Calvary.
Savior General of the Middle East cannot ride into Israel. Where has the presidency of the John Wayans gone to Hondo????
I keep anticipating a Mexifornia 2 what I enjoy most about this post is that subsidizing Mexico continues to be our downfall. It is sad that Mexico is such a beautiful country rich in Natural Resources but poor in education. Our welfare state must and can do more than a wizard like Harry Potter. Citizenship is a must before arrival along with education. Partnerships must be built before entry. An attack on Alderaan is better suited than Mexican American relations causing Harrison Ford to break his ankle. The Cartels are the Darth Vadars and the Storm Troopers of Mexifornia. President Obama must use force and convince Jerry Brown to. If not the result could be carbonate and two many illegal Hispanics named Chewy!!!!
Jwc
The unacompanied children debacle suggest a perfectly constitutional tactic for states to attack illegal immigration.
These days it’s considered felony child endangerment to let children play outside unattended or leave them in the car for five minutes while mommy dashes into the mini-mart. Given that, it follows that undocumented parents who hike their kids across border deserts in July or entrust them to cartel-controlled coyotes ought to be prosecutable under state law for endangement. That would send a very deterring message south of the border.
Of course, California isn’t interested in sending such a message, but Arizona and Texas might.