David's Essential Question Response

David T.
Essential Question
01/03/07


Since the plummet of the twin towers Americans have developed a phobia of Muslims and Middle Easterners. All assaults so far committed against western civilization have been committed by radical Muslims, during the latest attempt to cause mayhem both men and women of different ethnicities were involved. The only common denominator among those who tried to plant liquid bombs on British planes was their religion. Are we targeting radical Muslims enough in our campaign for national security?
Yes, we are making great strides to target radicals who misinterpret the teachings of Islam, but we are ages away form being able to say the American nation is safe; we need to prioritize our country’s threats and target the significant menaces. National security is a very complex matter. It doesn’t merely consist of protecting our flights. National security spans from securing our international and national flights to protecting our borders and maintaining safety in our schools and homeland. To insure a truly secure nation we must exceed in all these areas and create programs, which will insure permanent security versus temporary fixes.
After the tragic attack on New York City a group of German news reporters completed an intriguing study. They attempted to board both American and other nations’ flights with the same utility knives the terrorists of 9/11 used to commandeer the planes, which were crashed into the twin towers. In the process of going through airport security checks, boarding and getting off planes only 2 out of the 7 German news reporters were caught for carrying dangerous objects. The other five successfully smuggled the dangerous weapons aboard their flights. While major infractions such as these pass unnoticed, 80-year-old grandmothers catch the eyes of airport security and are harassed for having nail clippers, in their purses…
Concerning our nation’s borders, especially the southern one, we all know they are merely lines drawn in sand and dirt for illegal immigrants pass over whenever they wish. Illegal immigrants are floating into the country by the hundreds and if a terrorist wishes to make his job easier, he doesn’t go through the hassle of trying to get a visa and entering the United States legally, when all he needs to do is travel to Mexico and then run across the Mexican-American boarder. In the matter of a week he’ll be roaming the U.S. freely like it was magic. While it is so easy for illegal immigrants to enter the country, it is borderline impossible for legitimate workers and businessmen to enter the United States legally. A dear Hungarian friend of my family has been trying to enter the United States for the past 4 years to work for my father as his company’s manager. We have gone through painstaking and degrading processes to obtain a working visa for our family friend, which would allow him to work for my father in the United States. We have seen lawyers and federal officials by the dozens, we have been looked down upon by all, and with every attempt we made to bring a working and contributing taxpayer into the country we have been told with a condescending tone to forget it.
Our nation has made advances in security, we are making advances even at this moment, but the question remains will we reach an adequate level of national security before the next extremist attack on our nation, because we all now it is already being planned or executed.