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Updated 1 hour ago
A big hope when Donald Trump was campaigning to be president was that, if he somehow made it to the White House, wise advisers would control him. And his advisers more or less did — but they failed to be wise.
According to The New York Times, it was some inner-circle types who composed the executive order on refugees and immigrants that now has so many screeching to the point of endangered lungs.
The advisers, it's reported, did not want to risk politically inspired leaks that could have resulted from consulting the federal bureaucracy. So, aside from some invited experts, they decided to forego the assistance of the State Department, the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security and others who know what they are doing and would have roles in carrying out the policy.
If they had been involved, we could just maybe have had a public roundly informed prior to the order going into effect and well-prepared operatives avoiding klutzy confusion and individual misfortunes. We might have had some rethinking, additional, intelligent explication and less of what ensued: outrage within government, traveler troubles at airports, diplomatic damage and ideologically inspired commentary that put imagined evil over reality.
Advisers or no advisers, of course, Trump was part of this and wanted it and had not himself stopped to consider that maybe he is not the entire government, that maybe those agencies are there for a reason. The cost to him was an exclamation mark behind a belittled first week in office and the conclusion of not a few that he was helplessly bigoted and un-American. The conclusion of too many was that here was his once-threatened Muslim ban.
It was not a Muslim ban. It was timeout on admitting refugees, immigrants and travelers from terrorist-ridden countries. The idea was for Homeland Security to work with others in making sure we were not taking unneeded risks that could result in another 9/11 and other sad consequences for our nation. After some months, with one exception, everything would get going again, presumably with less to worry about.
The exception is Syria, where ISIS connivers are especially active and the timeout would be indefinite. Bringing in Syrian refugees would seem like the compassionate thing to do. But, at best, you are talking about a relatively few of the multimillions left in torment. The real issue for anyone who is serious is to find what can be done in the Middle East for the vast numbers who will not be going elsewhere.
Because the countries selected happen to be Muslim-majority states, it is maintained that this is all about beating up on Muslims. Sorry, but there is a definite, undeniable connection between terrorists and Muslims.
There are other issues here, such as Trump and advisers rationally enough wanting to limit the annual number of refugees to what it has been in the recent past. For a while, it appeared the Trump move would hinder travel by legal U.S. residents, but that went away, as have some other legitimate concerns, if not all of them.
Let's hope Trump and his advisers learn some lessons from all of this. But let's also hope that some of the delusional critics retreat to reason.
Jay Ambrose is an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service.
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