![\"The](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2018\/09\/Statue-of-liberty_tysto.jpg\")
<\/a>(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The New Colossus<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,<\/em><\/span> Emma Lazarus<\/span> \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Like most Americans, I\u2019ve been horrified by the scenes occurring in Afghanistan and appalled by the glaring incompetence of the Biden administration in handling the withdrawal of United States military forces.\u00a0 Watching the president\u2019s performance and the performance of his administration doesn\u2019t exactly fill me with confident optimism for challenges ahead.\u00a0 As one retired general pointed out a few days back on CNN, we could easily have placed a cordon around Kabul and explained to the Taliban that (a) it would be there until at least the time that we had extracted the Americans and the Afghans whom we desire to evacuate from the city and that (b) if they drew within, say, fifteen miles 0f the city limits, we would obliterate them.\u00a0 Instead . . .\u00a0 Well, you\u2019ve seen it on your television screens.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Most critics of the execution of the withdrawal think, nevertheless, that exiting \u201cAmerica\u2019s longest war\u201d was long overdue.\u00a0 I\u2019m not at all convinced even of that.\u00a0 Instead, I agree on this issue with Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), who points out that we had only a relative handful of troops in Afghanistan, most if not all of them volunteers (not conscripts), and that they have been doing an excellent job in carrying out the real mission of U.S. forces in the country:\u00a0 They have prevented al-Qa\u2018ida and others from being able to use Afghanistan as a staging area for attacks on the United States and on the West.\u00a0 Moreover \u2014 and this is both striking and significant \u2014 they have not sustained a single casualty for the past eighteen months.\u00a0 See his article in the Wall Street Journal<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe \u2018Endless Wars\u2019 Fallacy: There are many options between nation building and giving up, and we had found a good one in Afghanistan before President Biden abandoned it.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Sadly, Afghanistan is once more available as a potential base for Islamist terrorist organizations.\u00a0 But that\u2019s out of my hands.\u00a0 We won\u2019t have another national election until 2022, and we won\u2019t have our next presidential election until 2024.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not convinced that the Republican Party as presently oriented is a serious, principled opposition party.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s probably much closer to politics than I ought to have come.\u00a0 So let me shift here to a different level of reflection:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It may again be time for Americans to \u201cthink globally but act locally\u201d:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAre Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban regime headed to Utah?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been distressed, frankly, to see at least one commenter on my blog demand, as I understand him, that our country refuse to admit Afghan Muslim refugees.\u00a0 I assume that he\u2019s referring even to the translators and others who have helped the United States in Afghanistan and whose lives (and whose families\u2019 lives) are now in grave danger under a renewed Taliban regime.\u00a0 By contrast, I regard giving such people aid and sanctuary as a matter of national honor, to say nothing of it being a prudent measure so that potential future allies will have reason to trust us rather than to fear that we\u2019ll cut and run and abandon them to our common foes.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I understand the need for vetting, of course.\u00a0 If I were a mullah of the Taliban contemplating future terrorist actions on American soil, I would be seeking to smuggle my operatives in among the exiles.\u00a0 What could be better than to have the United States itself cover the transportation costs of its avowed enemies?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n There seems no compelling reason to bar Muslims from our shores if they\u2019ve been adequately vetted.\u00a0 \u00a0However, when asked to justify his proposed religion test for immigrants \u2014 a test that, in my view, could not possibly pass constitutional muster (see, on this, \u201cAmici Curiae Brief by Scholars of Mormonism<\/a> Opposed to Trump\u2019s Refugee and Immigrant Ban,\u201d<\/a> to which I was a signatory) \u2014\u00a0this particular reader argues against allowing Afghan Muslim refugees to come to our homeland by pointing to Ilhan Omar (D-MN, born in Mogadishu, Somalia) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI, born in Detroit, Michigan [!]).\u00a0 But surely the problem with these two, of whom I myself am far from a fan, is not their Islam but, rather, their extreme leftist political ideologies.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But care for refugees is also a Gospel obligation and a basic principle in the teaching of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 I remind you in this context of one of the greatest talks given in a session of the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> since I\u2019ve been listening:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRefuge from the Storm\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Incidentally, hearing the word Taliban<\/em> used as a singular (e.g., \u201cThe Taliban is not trustworthy\u201d or \u201cThe Taliban is tightening its grip on the Afghan capital\u201d grates on my ears like the proverbial fingernails on a chalkboard.\u00a0 The easiest way for me to explain why is simply to quote Wikipedia:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe word\u00a0Taliban<\/i>\u00a0is\u00a0Pashto<\/a>,\u00a0\u0637\u0627\u0644\u0628\u0627\u0646<\/span>\u00a0(\u1e6d\u0101lib\u0101n<\/i>), meaning \u2018students\u2019, the plural of\u00a0\u1e6d\u0101lib<\/a><\/i>. This is a\u00a0loanword<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Arabic<\/a>\u00a0\u0637\u0627\u0644\u0628<\/span>\u00a0(\u1e6d\u0101lib<\/i>), using the Pashto plural ending\u00a0-\u0101n<\/i>\u00a0\u0627\u0646<\/span>. In Arabic\u00a0\u0637\u0627\u0644\u0628\u0627\u0646<\/span>\u00a0(\u1e6d\u0101lib\u0101n<\/i>) means not \u2018students\u2019 but rather \u2018two students\u2019, as it is a\u00a0dual<\/a>\u00a0form, the Arabic plural being\u00a0\u0637\u0644\u0627\u0628<\/span>\u00a0(\u1e6dull\u0101b<\/i>)\u2014occasionally causing some confusion to Arabic speakers. Since becoming a loanword in English,\u00a0Taliban<\/i>, besides a plural noun referring to the group, has also been used as a singular noun referring to an individual.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 *** \u00a0 The New Colossus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[24364,24367,4339,9638,10555,24352,24355,12382,24361,2451,66,24358,24346,24370,24373,1769,1718,20925,5286,24349,1911,4342,782],"class_list":["post-92357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-afghan","tag-afghani","tag-afghanistan","tag-biden","tag-elder","tag-exile","tag-exiles","tag-immigrant","tag-immigrants","tag-immigration","tag-islam","tag-isolationism","tag-isolationist","tag-joe","tag-kearon","tag-muslim","tag-muslims","tag-patrick","tag-president","tag-refugee","tag-refugees","tag-taliban","tag-utah"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nWith conquering limbs astride from land to land;<\/em><\/span>
\nHere at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand<\/em><\/span>
\nA mighty woman with a torch, whose flame<\/em><\/span>
\nIs the imprisoned lightning, and her name<\/em><\/span>
\nMother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand<\/em><\/span>
\nGlows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command<\/em><\/span>
\nThe air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.<\/em><\/span>
\n\u201cKeep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!\u201d cries she<\/em><\/span>
\nWith silent lips. \u201cGive me your tired, your poor,<\/em><\/span>
\nYour huddled masses yearning to breathe free,<\/em><\/span>
\nThe wretched refuse of your teeming shore.<\/em><\/span>
\nSend these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,<\/span>
\nI lift my lamp beside the golden door!\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
\n2 November 1883<\/span><\/p>\n