THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

WHAT IN THE HELL ARE WE DOING IN IRAQ? | 2003-11-29

American troops are in Iraq because the Bush Administration will not protect our own borders. The United States was attacked on September 11, 2001, and the United States is far and away the greatest military power on earth. So we had to do SOMETHING.

Right now there is a big trial going on about the sniper shootings in the DC area. The younger murderer, Lee Malvo, is an illegal alien who was caught and then allowed to run free by Federal authorities. All this happened long after the terror attack of September 11, 2001.

Nobody brings this point up any more when the sniper trial is discussed. There has been no crackdown on the kind of illegal alien activities that brought on the September 11 attack. We all know there won't be any such crackdown. Hispanic voters don't want it.

Bush will never get the votes of the Hispanic voters who favor illegal aliens, but he thinks he has nothing to lose by going after them.

The simple fact is that Bush will never enforce any immigration laws. But in the end his voters will back him because Bush's opponents are worse. Bush doesn't care what happens to America, but his Democratic challengers actually hate America. Anyone born here is, to them, an true alien.

That sounds crazy, but it is the exact truth. And every election, Americans elect somebody with Bush's attitude, someone with the Democratic attitude, or someone in between.

So we have troops in Iraq.

And we are going to keep troops in Iraq. Why? Because they're our boys, you see, and we want to be patriotic. We want to be so patriotic about Iraq that we cannot spare any troops to patrol the American border.

We are in Iraq because American voters are chasing their tails.