Shapiro is exactly right. Anyone who has lived in the US over the past 25 years, has eyes to see and ears to hear, knows that the only real racists in the US today are blacks. From the neo-barbarians of the black underclass to the blacks who by any standard "have it made" here (see Henry Louis Gates at Harvard),"race" is their total obsession. At every level in the black population, whites are to blame for every black pathology, from crime to out of wedlock babies to welfare to miserable academic performance...all "whitey's" fault. This population group is becoming irrelevant in the US and what is worse, it contains a very real potential for anti-America subversion. Wake up, America!

We cannot solve the problem as long as we refuse to see the prohblem! As long as we continue to insist that "Islam is a religion of peace" we will not solve the problem. Granted, we cannot catch them all, because many are right here and are US citizens. They don't have to travel anywhere to cause damage and death. But we can and should immediately ban entry into the US by all Muslims and citizens of Muslim countries. No Pakistani, for example, should ever again be allowed into this country. Same for Saudis, Yemenis, Somalis, et al. If the innocent among them suffer, tough! No one has a "right" to come into the US, except American citizens. No one has a "need" to come into the country. Since we have no way of knowing which among...

Just two points of disagreement with an otherwise excellent column: first, the Revolution was not at all a choice between "freedom or be a slave". The English settlers in the colonies were far from being slaves, in fact probably enjoyed more personal freedom than the vast majority of their kinsmen back in England. Second point: there is great dispute among scholars about just to what degree the comm,on soldier in the Revolution felt that he was fighting for "future generations" or just for his own survival, like soldiers for centuries before and after. The leaders sure, in most cases, but not the grunts.

Having been to Haiti several times, I can say without any equivocation that Haiti is hopeless.
The only possible solution is to give every single Haitian an immigrant visa to the US and settle them in various places here. Nothing can be done with/in, Haiti. The country has no resources, what passes for agriculture does not come close to providing for the population, they have no money, either personal or national, they have no tradition of participatory government, no education system...in short, there is nothing here to save or that is worth saving.
Otherwise, the American taxpayer will assume a century-long care burden for that country and its people. Are we all ok with that? Does the US have enough money, are we taxed...

I love Mona Charen, but her column raises one BIG question: why should we not expect gratitude from people we spend millions of dollars and much manpower to help? We, the US and the American people, have absolutely no obligation to spend one dime assisting citizens of other countries when natural disasters strike. We do it out of the kindness of our hearts (and sometimes because we're ordered to)and most of the time we do it instantly, willingly, and unstintingly. I am not aware of any country ever publically saying "thanks". On the contrary, from what I'm seeing, most of the aid recipients seem to feel that the US "owes" them the help and they complain because it isn't "enough", doesn't arrive as quickly as they would like, or...

Why does the US care about Afghanistan anyway? Who cares who runs that place? Taliban works with Al Qaeda now against thed common enemy, the American occupying army and the totally corrupt Karzai "government". Afghans, especially Pushtun tribes, are world champion xenophobes, and as soon as the Americans are gone they will run the Arabs out. Taliban is interested only in Afghanistan. They have no interest in a "world-wide caliphate" or in bombing Chicago...just Afghanistan. Since we do not intend to really fight to win, we have two alternatives here: we can prepare to stay there for generations to come and most likely end up with a bloody and embarassing defeat, or we can try to work a deal with Taliban, ie...we leave, they get...

Altho I too am delighted in any reduction in support for the totalitarian left in this country, I urge that we not get carried away over these latest poll numbers. 46% means almost half of Americans still think Obama is doing a fine job and are happy with his regime as it is. 46% is by no means a triumph for conservatives and Republicans and there is still a lot of work to be done and a lot of truth to be brought out. When Obama's disapproval gets down to 30-35%, then we can, at least for a while, claim victory. But not yet...no way!

mark...You sound as though you have inside knowledge of this process. DOS is simply not organized either physically or, more importantly mentally, to function in a law-enforcement capacity. The issuance of visas is clearly set forth in the FAM and in the INAs, which are available at every consulate and embassy. There would be no problem here for anyone with a law enforcement mentality, DS, old INS, et al for example. DOS officers are, however, (usually) very intelligent, well-educated individuals who have to pass rigid examinations and screening (unless they are black) before they are accepted into the Foreign Service. The generally origineta from middle-to upper-middle class origins and are generally quite liberal before they come...

Who cares what is done to those savages? All the rationalization I need is to consider what they would do to me, what they have done, and what they are doing right now, to their own people in Afghanistan and Iraq, even as we speak. Someone once said, "the Constitution is not a suicide pact." Exactly right. We have already put far too many "nice guy" restrictions on our troops in combat...so that we will never again win a war...and now the same on out intel guys. Does the concept "treason" exist anymore in this country?a

But the visa sections DON'T regularly deny visas to poor...whoever...who just want to make a buck! I was a visa fraud officer for several years in the DOS in Mexico, El Salvador et al, and, for example, in Mexico City we had an annual denial rate of apx.22%! That means that of the some 3000 visa aplicants at the US Embassy everyday, in the country that supplies by far most of the illegal immigrants in the US, only about 20 out of every hundred were found to be unqualified for visas. A more accurate percentage, applying US immigration law would have been just about the reverse, with easily 85-90% denials. The State Dept operates under a blanket leftist, "kumbaya-singing", peace corps "let's help them out" mentality. The foreign...