A guest commentary that ran in the Seattle Times reflects a big problem of which everyone should be aware. (“How U.S. foreign policy in Central America created the child border crisis.”) The writer is yet another apologist for dysfunctional governments in other nations that blames the U.S. for the problems. The latest is a former UW program director who claims that we bear the greater responsibility for the crisis at our southern border. Our economic and foreign policies in those countries are misguided, she claims. We propped up failed leaders and continue to do so.
She of course fails to mention what happens when we decide that leaders in some countries need to go. You know, like in Iraq and Libya, and were strongly encouraged by some to do the same in Syria. We have done the same in Central and South America with similar results. It doesn’t seem to matter in some countries just who does run them. Both the Middle East and Central America, and to a lesser extent in South America, have populations and birth rates that far exceed the ability of their respective economies to provide enough jobs. Unemployment in some of those countries exceeds 50 percent.
The writer blames the U.S. for exporting our gangs back to Central America. She might have mentioned that those gangs went back to their home countries to work in the drug trades that exist because of our own sick drug-infested society.
She questions our sense of compassion and responsibility for the refugees. That we already have some 11 or 12 million of those refugees who came here illegally, apparently matters not. She should have to explain to folks like my neighbor, who is from Mexico, and waited five years for his citizenship, why it is that we should grant citizenship to folks just because they are here.
We may bear some responsibility for the miserable state of Central American governments, but their own society bears, by far, most blame. They have been dysfunctional for a long time. By taking their problems off their hands we only make it possible for them to further delay taking the steps that are necessary for a functioning government and economy.
Don Curtis
Clinton
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