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Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Start your day with intelligence. Get The OODA Daily Pulse.
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
I’m reading about and occasionally watching snippets of the illegal immigration protests going on around the country. Looking at the crowds I am reminded of the deer hunting drives of my youth and wonder why there isn’t a line of CBP agents at one end of the street with bags of flex-cuffs, while another line of agents marches towards them talking loudly about “papers please” and “English-only” education. I guess such a tactic would be akin to shining white tails from the cab of your truck: successful, but not very sporting.
I have been trying to think of what it is that these illegals and their supporters are trying to accomplish and the closest thing I can think of is “Quebec.” As I understand it, in Quebec (indeed all of Canada) everything is printed in English and French. You get the New World version of French rudeness if you don’t actually speak French to the grocer, the waiter, and the candlestick maker. In addition to the extra cost and humbug of doing everything in two languages, you also have to put up with frequent rumblings from tuque-wearing radicals about secession, which would make rescuing a French-speaking nation from an oppressive invader a lot faster next time around.
The more I think about it though, the more I think that people are misinterpreting what this whole “United States” thing is all about. Take the EU for example. A “US of Europe” sounded like a great idea. I watch with envy every time I am in Europe and have to wait in line for an hour to get my passport stamped while EU passport holders just zip through customs checkpoints with the kind of freedom of movement we enjoy in the States. Then I hear about EU regulators squashing long held cultural traditions in various EU member nations because they don’t jibe with the EU uber-rules.
That’s not how it is supposed to work. The idea is you keep your old traditions while at the same time you adopt new ones related to your new found togetherness. Nobody plays hurling here, they play baseball. Major League Soccer is just over a decade old, while pro football is in its 80s. We eat apple pie, not strudel and frog’s legs are bait, not lunch.
The difficulty in fully ratifying the EU constitution makes me think that some folks in the old countries understand all of this, but it also makes me wonder what the world would be like if more people thought that it would be a good thing if we just tore down the borders and let some body like the UN run the world. For starters:
This is a sample but you get the point: nations and borders are important; culture and tradition are important; everyone was a slave or oppressed or displaced at some time. The point is to make the most of today so as to avoid a repeat of yesterday. Legitimate immigrants want to come here because of what this country is and what it stands for, not because they want to replicate the same s***** conditions they left behind. If you are an immigrant – regardless of your legal status – and you’re not thinking along these lines, you are not looking for Lady Liberty’s warm embrace; you’re looking for her to give you happy ending.
About the Author
Michael Tanji spent nearly 20 years in the US intelligence community. Trained in both SIGINT and HUMINT disciplines he has worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the National Reconnaissance Office. At various points in his career he served as an expert in information warfare, computer network operations, computer forensics, and indications and warning. A veteran of the US Army, Michael has served in both strategic and tactical assignments in the Pacific Theater, the Balkans, and the Middle East.
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence