But
yesterday's announcement is anchored in his campaign rhetoric, and the
fact that every country on yesterday's list is a Muslim-majority nation
confirms that he meant what he said - that Muslims are dangerous and
need to be treated differently than any other set of people.
This is why yesterday's proposal is likely to get Americans killed.
ISIS, the
most dangerous of a global array of radical Islamic terrorist groups, is
in retreat. Every day, they lose more territory, and it is only a
matter of time before their self-proclaimed caliphate disappears before
the world's eyes. The continual loss of territory robs from ISIS one of
their two main rationales for existence - the creation of a geographic
entity based on their perverted interpretation of Islam.
But ISIS
has a second purpose - to take part in an imagined global struggle of
civilizations between Christians and Muslims. President Obama and
President Bush before him knew the danger of stoking talk of war between
east and west. Obama knew how important this kind of talk was to ISIS's
recruitment and expansion, and he went out of his way to tamp it down.
Trump has
now handed ISIS a path to rebirth. They can and will use his
announcement as confirmation that America is at war with Muslims,
especially those Muslims living in desperate circumstances. Their
recruitment bulletin boards will light up with new material. Their
entreaties to would-be lone wolf attackers in America will have new
energy and purpose.
All the
work we have done to cut down on extremist recruitment at home and
abroad now goes out the window. It's a new day for terrorist recruiters.
And the
list is dangerous for other reasons. It makes Americans think that
terrorists can be contained simply by focusing on a few countries that
are often in the news. But the real threats to America are much broader
than just these countries. Where is Saudi Arabia on this list? Or
Pakistan? Does Trump not recall that the attackers on September 11th
came not from Syria or Iran or Sudan, but from Saudi Arabia, our
supposed ally? And what about Europe, a continent that now enjoys
relatively unfettered travel rights to the United States? Radicalized
European citizens have already carried out massive terrorist attacks,
and under current law, they can travel to the U.S. without almost any
security screening. Terrorist threats do not originate in one set of
countries, and thus a geographic approach is feckless.
If
President Trump was serious about tackling the terrorist threat, he
would make sure the Europeans were sharing counterterrorism intelligence
with each other, and with us, so we can track potential terrorists no
matter what country they come from. Another commonsense measure would be
to ban people on the terrorist watch list from buying deadly firearms
in America. But rather than do any of these things that would actually
make Americans safer, Trump is pursuing misguided policies rooted in
bigotry and fear.
And
the boon to flailing terrorist groups is just the beginning of the
tragedy of yesterday's announcement. During my last trip to the Middle
East, I was upbraided by our allies in the region for our country's
refusal to help them with the flow of refugees out of Iraq and Syria.
Over and over they told me, as they had told the Obama Administration,
that we would never be perceived a partner in the fight against Islamic
extremism if we washed our hands of the refugee problem.
We assail
Libya and Yemen and Syria and Iraq with bombs, and then simply expect
other countries to deal with the consequences. We make the mess, then
expect others to clean up. This infuriates our friends and damages our
partnerships. Now, Trump's Muslim ban will risk severing ties between us
and many of these nations. They will see our policy as xenophobic and
detrimental to the displaced persons crisis in the region. Our ability
to build a truly multi-national response to extremism will become
impossible.
Finally,
the decision to turn our backs on millions of men, women, and children
attempting to flee torture and terror shrinks us as a nation, and marks
an unconscionable abandonment of our founding principles. Remember,
those who make it into the U.S. refugee program have survived the worst
of the worst - they are those who are so badly injured, so in danger,
that they cannot survive in refugee camps. The vast majority of them are
women, young children and the elderly. They are desperate and scared,
and without harbor in the United States, many of them will perish.
We are a
nation founded by religious refugees. Over and over, we have opened our
doors to those fleeing war and terror. Jews during the Second World War.
The Vietnamese in the 1960s and 1970s. Bosnians and Albanians during
the Balkan War. I am proud to represent Connecticut, a state which is a
testament to this past practice. Each time we found ways to sort out
the good guys (99%) from the bad guys (1%). There were terrorists in
Vietnam and the Balkans who wanted in - we kept them out. We can do the
same here. We can protect ourselves from terror and rescue others from
terror - these are not mutually exclusive ends.
And we
must do both. Trump's Muslim ban is a moral abomination. It is
fundamentally un-American. And it is dangerous - it will give life back
to the terrorist movement and eventually get Americans killed.
We knew
this was coming. Trump means what he says, and now his offensive
ramblings against people of Muslim faith are edified in law. But we
don't have to accept it. We must fight this new policy. We must seek to
rescind it. We must let the world know that Trump's discriminatory views
do not reflect the true America. And we must rally Americans who think
that keeping Muslims out keeps us safe to understand that this policy
does exactly the opposite.
This isn't who we are. It's not who we should be. And I will fight this policy with all that I have.
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