Use water, not gasoline

I believe President Trump’s travel ban is unconstitutional and extremely dangerous to the future of our nation. We must not let fear mongering and ignorance push us to abandon the very ideals that give America its strength and moral standing. I’ve defended our nation and Constitution for 26 years of military service (and was deployed to the Middle East numerous times, so I’ve seen a quite few of these overwhelmingly Muslim countries from the inside). The threat of extremist terrorists striking against the United States is very real. I fully support the amazing work our counterintelligence experts are doing on a daily basis to keep all Americans safe. They use analytical evidence as the basis of their work, not conjecture and hyperbole. The majority of experienced counter-terrorist experts agree that adopting what amounts to a Muslim ban is actually counterproductive, and that it actually fuels terrorist recruitment by giving the terrorists propaganda to bolster their point that they are engaged in a global religious war —Christians versus Muslims.

Don’t listen to the inflammatory rhetoric of self-aggrandizing politicians and pundits. Take a few extra minutes to read commentaries by established counter-terrorism experts. We need to use water, not gasoline, to extinguish the flames that fuel violent extremism.