Homeland security in a nutshell

Once again, leave it to Mark Steyn to state the obvious...

... It's time to hunker down in Fortress America. Which brings me to the fourth lesson: What fortress? The three Duka brothers were (if you'll forgive the expression) illegal immigrants. They're not meant to be here. Yet they graduated from a New Jersey high school and they operated two roofing companies and a pizzeria. Think of how often you have to produce your driver's license or social security number. But, five years after 9/11, this is still one of the easiest countries in the world in which to establish a functioning but fraudulent identity.

Consider, for example, the post-9/11 ritual of airline security. You have to produce government-issued picture ID to the TSA official. Does that make you feel safer? On that Tuesday morning in September, four of the killers got on board by using picture ID they'd acquired through the "undocumented worker" network in Falls Church, Virginia. Half the jurisdictions in the United States issue picture ID to people who shouldn't even be in the country, and they issue it as a matter of policy. The Fort Dix
boys were pulled over for 19 traffic violations, but because they were in "sanctuary cities" any cop who suspected they were illegals was unable to report them to immigration authorities.

Again, as a matter of policy. On the one hand, America creates a vast federal security bureaucracy to prevent another 9/11. On the other hand, American politicians and bureaucrats create a parallel system of education and welfare and health care entitlements by contriving in the maintenance and expansion of a vast network of fraudulent identity that corrupts the integrity of almost all state databases. And even though it played a part in the killing of three thousand Americans, leaders of both parties insist nothing can be done to stop it. All we can do is give the Duka brothers "a fast track to citizenship."

The Iranians are already operating in the Tri-Border area of South America. Is it the nothing-can-be-done crowd's assumption that the fellows who run the armies of the "undocumented" from Mexico into America are just kindhearted human smugglers who'd have nothing to do with jihad even if the price was right? If you don't have borders, you won't have a nation — and you may find "the jobs Americans won't do" covers a multitude of sins.