Lyons
is probably alive today due to the emergency intervention of two brilliant Iranian neurosurgeons -immigrant brothers -- at a Fayetteville hospital. For my money, the U.S. can’t admit enough Persian immigrants, heirs to one of the world’s oldest civilizations.
And for pretty much the same reasons all eight of my Irish greatgrandparents were welcomed to America more than a century ago: poverty and oppression. A lot of people were suspicious of their religion, too.
But that was back when, whatever their shortcomings, Americans tended to be a brave, self-confident people. Today, millions of timid ignoranuses cower behind TV screens listening to a preposterous blowhard vow to protect them from a scary threat few
can even define.
So should it matter that there have been zero U.S. fatalities at the hands of terrorists from any of the seven countries Trump named? Well, you’d think so. Of course, if the travel ban had anything to do with an actual threat, it would center upon countries like Saudi Arabia, where the majority of the 9/11 terrorists originated. However, the Saudis have three things nobody in Yemen, Sudan or Somalia can boast: oil, money, and Trump Organization investments.
So that’s out of the question. Anyway, vetting of immigrants from Middle Eastern countries is already strong, and has been ever since 9/11. The process can take years. That’s part of the reason why more Americans by far (22) were killed by cows in 2016 than by foreign terrorists (0).
But then, as I say, this entire exercise in folly has nothing to do with resisting ISIS, a stateless band of murdering psychopaths that nevertheless poses no existential threat to Americans. Instead, it’s about atavistic fears, racial contempt and misplaced zeal for our preposterous comicopera president.
So: Delusional or a pathological liar?
We report, you decide.