https://www.unz.com/jderbyshire/our-afghan-atomic-bomb-insane-foreign-policy-meets-insane-immigration-policy/
We are now out of Afghanistan. This is such a relief after twenty years of futility, Joe Biden has been getting thanks from some surprising people—Ann Coulter and Richard Spencer, for example.
I’m as glad as they are. But I think the appalling mess Biden’s people made of the evacuation cancels out any gratitude due to the president. When the Soviet Union, on its last geriatric legs, made a cleaner, cheaper show of withdrawing from Afghanistan in defeat than we have, heads should roll.
A basic atom bomb depends on a mass of nuclear material going into a spontaneous fission reaction. You put two or more subcritical masses into some device, keeping them apart from each other. Then, when you want an explosion, you bring them together to form a critical mass. Bang!
Similarly, the current mess is the result of two subcritical masses of insanity coming together:
U. S. foreign policy insanity; and
U. S. immigration policy insanity.
Our foreign policy insanity—these dumb missionary wars we keep getting involved with—has been a constant for decades now. It’s possible we have finally learned our lesson; but I seriously doubt it. I look forward to milking that insanity for commentary as long as I can work a keyboard.
So let’s see what this week has shown us about our immigration insanity. The focus of concern: the floods of Afghans we have taken in.
The original idea, which seemed reasonable (at any rate to me) was that we should take in and settle Afghans who had trustingly put their lives on the line to help us advance our foreign policy, as insane as that policy was. That would be a fair and decent thing to do.
As it’s worked out, though, none but a small proportion of the tens of thousands of Afghans we’ve brought in belong to that category. Most are just random Afghans who got to Kabul airport and bribed or elbowed or threatened their way onto a plane. Far from owning Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) papers to show they have at least claimed to have helped us, many have no papers at all.
Meanwhile, Afghans who are SIV applicants but could not make it to Kabul, are being hunted down and killed by the Taliban. Moral of the story: Put no trust in the U.S.A.
Ann Corcoran has noted that most of the incoming Afghans are likely being admitted on parole, not as refugees. What does “on parole” mean? If you follow Ann’s link to the Homeland Security Today website, you get this:
Parole does not confer immigration status and does not provide a path to permanent residency or the ability to obtain lawful immigration status. However, a parolee may be able to obtain lawful status in the United States through other means.
