The Value Of Police Work

2 German nationals (not Arabs, but converts to radical Islam) and one Turk have been arrested on suspicion of terrorism charges in Berlin. They had apparently horded 1,500 pounds of explosive material similar to that used in the London transport bombings, and were reportedly planning to potentially hit American military facilities like Rammstein AFB in Frankfurt.

This was the culmination of a long investigation by diligent German intelligence services and law enforcement personnel. If our 160,000 or so American troops now serving in Iraq were investigating terror ties and financing and embedding as human intelligence in training camps, etc., etc., do you think we'd be safer? I do.

The point is that diligent law enforcement is a key component of stopping terrorist actions. Having a bunch of troops policing a civil war in Iraq is never going to stop German terror cells from forming. Never. The connection would be absurd on its face. Also, some of these guys apparently received training in Pakistan, which is now a harbor for terrorists despite being an American ally. Indeed just yesterday there was a deadly terrorist attack in the Pakistani capital. We have ceded our national security to a weak South Asian despot, who's looking to possibly declare a state of emergency in order to save his autocratic rulership.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, said that while a complete military takeover under martial law had been ruled out, a state of emergency that would allow for the postponement of elections for up to a year and the curtailment of individual liberties was still on the table. "Martial law is a very harsh word," Hussain said in an interview. "Emergency rule is not so harsh."

So we have a possible martial law-in-all-but-name in Pakistan (way to promote democracy), a safe haven for terrorists in that country (so much for "you're either with us or against us"), and law enforcement and intelligence being the only thing stopping terror attacks around the world (so much for "going on the offense" only meaning militarily)...

There's one other thing here. European countries who have done a terrible job dealing with Muslim immigration have radicalized those populations through their policies. By setting them apart from true citizenship, by putting up barriers to jobs and socialization, they have given poor, angry, young Muslims nowhere to turn but the mosque, and frequently that mosque is a radical one. This is the exact opposite of our current immigration policy in the United States. Muslim populations here have the highest degree of assimilation anywhere in the world, and for this reason there are comparatively very few of these kinds of legitimate terror cells. Yet there is a group that would have us revert to European-style immigration standards that would marginalize and radicalize populations in our country. They're called the Republican Party.