July 19, 2003

Racism and Nat'l Security

Today's NYT cover story.

Before it became apparent that Americans weren't exactly being welcomed with open arms in Iraq, I was skeptical. Of course, I'm skeptical ANYWAY but that's beside the point.

My thing was this. You're talking about a group of people being "overseen" by an occupying force that with a few exceptions does not look like them, does not speak their language, does not worship the same God, does not have the same interpersonal customs. If that isn't the recipie for problems--even before we take anti-American sentiment into account--I don't know what is.

So when I read that an Arab-American is suing the FBI, I'm wondering what took so long. The agents best able to properly grapple with Middle East (more properly Southwest Asia but that's another story) terrorists are going to be those agents the FBI will keep off the case for as long as possible.

Posted by at July 19, 2003 10:51 AM | TrackBack