NOW there is a “surge” of folks coming into America looking for a better life. But at the same time, Americans are increasingly moving overseas in search for better healthcare (or at least more affordable) and even white-collar technical jobs.
With the transfer of U.S. jobs to foreign shores, U.S. workers themselves might be tempted to learn a foreign language and “follow” those jobs. More so in the future.
So while the folks line up at U.S. embassies worldwide for in-bound migration, I see lots of Americans lining up at foreign consulates here applying for work visas and the like. Besides economic opportunities, crime is lot lower in other nations. The only question is how will people in other nations treat Americans in search of a new life?
On the other hand, people that are displaced from war-torn locations such as Iraq actually do not want to come here. They rather have stayed at home even under Saddam who “only” went after those who would destabilize his regime such as the Kurds who want an independent homeland and the Shia who has deep ties with Iran, a perennial enemy of Sunnis.
It is not like the Jews who were trying to flee Nazi — Europe who actually wanted to come to the United States but ended up going to Israel, non-existent as a nation, then thereby fulfilling, ironically, one of the prophesies in the Bible that when Israel becomes a nation, that would be the last generation. Which makes me wonder why Joe Lieberman (Democrat/Independent, Connecticut) is threatening to bolt to the GOP if the Democrats cut off funding for the Iraq war.
If Joe is worried about the state of Israel, he should know that the Iraq invasion has made Israel less secure because one of the other criteria to join Al-Qaida is one of your family members had to have been killed by Israeli or American security forces. Which means the longer the war goes on the stronger the enemy gets, at least to fill its ranks. (Also if the Iraq war precipitates “Armageddon,” Joe is not a born-again believing which leaves him no better than Al-Qaida.) On the other hand, if he is worried about the U.S., he should know that the total debt accumulated threatens to convert the American economy from a welfare one to a military-driven one like DPRK. And he says his foreign policy views are more in tune with the GOP — which is a failure — while his domestic policy views are more in tune with the Dems. Will be a failure, too, if the war is not ended.

MATT PHILIPS
Mangilao, Guam