This is wrong.
Whichever way President Trump tries to justify his executive order on banning immigrants and refugees from seven war-ravaged countries, it makes no sense.The facts, alternate or otherwise, speak for themselves:
Nobody from any of those predominantly Muslim countries – Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen - has committed a terror attack on US mainland.
The perpetrators of the two major Islamic extremist terror attacks in New York on 9/11 and more recently in San Bernadino, came from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Lebanon and Pakistan.
Yet, perversely, none of these countries are on the banned list.
As always with the often absurdly exaggerated anti-Trump hysteria that greets everything he does, it’s important to offer some clarification and perspective.
Trump’s not throwing all Muslims out of America, nor is he banning all Muslims from coming in as he once, shockingly, threatened to do.
He’s putting a temporary ban on any people from seven countries where Islamic terror is rife, until much tighter VISA systems and ‘extreme vetting’ is put in place.
This is exactly what he repeatedly said he’d do in the latter stages of his campaign, it’s therefore one of the reasons he won the election, and it will be applauded by many millions of Americans who voted for him.
I also genuinely believe Donald Trump is doing this because he wants to stop Americans being attacked again by Islamic extremists, not because he just hates Muslims.
He’s seen what’s happened in Paris, Nice and Brussels and blames lax border controls for the ease with which nihilist terrorists can now infiltrate civilian life, some by posing as refugees, and kill mass numbers of people.
There is undeniably a very good argument to further strengthen immigration rules to prevent people with nefarious intent from entering the US.
Indeed, Barack Obama took several significant steps to do just that in the last year
So let’s not pretend that everything Donald Trump’s doing here is outrageous and unacceptable just because he’s Donald Trump.
But nor can we pretend that some of what he’s doing is not outrageous and unacceptable – because it is.
There is no good reason why people with perfectly valid permanent resident green cards have been rounded up at airports, handcuffed, and threatened with deportation.
Slashing the number of genuine refugees America will accept going forward, and taking none from Syria ‘indefinitely’, is utterly reprehensible, too.
These people are fleeing the very Middle East battlefields sparked by the illegal, immoral and disastrous war on Iraq.
A war that America, with its equally culpable allies like Britain, started with Saddam Hussein as twisted, illogical revenge for a terror attack committed by somebody else.
The wrong guy was targeted then, just as this executive order picks on many of the wrong guys now.
We have a moral duty to help those innocent people whose lives have been ruined by our unjustified warfare. To now subject them to even more oppression, heartache and despair seems cruel.
Even worse, it may imperil their lives if they are forced to return to places where they may be killed.
It cannot be right that they are now being victimized for something they haven’t done.
There is also a massive delusion to the myth that Muslim terrorists are the biggest violent threat to American lives.
Since Donald Trump’s inauguration nine days ago, more than 750 people have been killed by guns in America, through murder, accident and suicide.
This is the horrific daily toll on American life from firearms.
Today, another 85 people will be shot dead.
And the same tomorrow.
The situation is so appalling that in 2016, more Americans were killed by TODDLERS with guns than by terrorists.
Yet there has been no executive order to try to stop this carnage, and nor is there likely to be.
President Trump was vociferously backed by the NRA in his election campaign and he is a fervent supporter of the 2nd Amendment.
This raises a massive flaw in the logic of his determination to protect Americans and make the country safer.
How can you ban people from countries that have so far committed zero terror attacks on US mainland to ‘keep America safe’, but do nothing about the domestic deadly gun-related terror being waged on the streets every day by Americans of all color and creed?
I am all for President Trump wielding the big stick of American military power when it comes to destroying ISIS.
They are a despicable group of medieval barbarians intent on destroying our way of life.
But this overly-draconian executive order will simply serve to empower ISIS, act as the best recruitment agent they could possibly wish for, and fuel their conspiracy theory that America’s waging war on Islam, not just Islamic terrorists.
It’s also grotesquely unfair because it punishes many decent, law-abiding people who have every right to be in the country.
Olympic Gold medal champion runner Sir Mo Farah has a dual UK/Somali citizenship so is technically now banned from America where he does much of his training.
An Iraqi-born British member of Parliament, Nadhim Zahawi, whose children are at Princeton University, can’t come in.
Hameed Darweesh, a hero US military translator for 10 years, was detained at JFK airport and only freed after mass protests.
As for the indefinite ban on Syrian refugees, consider this: Apple creator Steve Jobs’ father was a Syrian refugee to the US.
Under this new order, he would have been banned entry, and America’s most successful ever company would never have happened.
How can any of this be right?
‘We don’t want them here,’ President Trump said yesterday, referring to Islamic terrorists. ‘We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people.’
Every sensible person would agree with this sentiment.
But a lot of those directly and instantly targeted by this crackdown DO support America and DO love the people deeply.
Hence the furious response.
This executive order is not making America great.
It’s making America hate.
Think again, Mr President.
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