David Webb: Don’t let bad policy dictate our foreign affairs

As the GOP presidential debate at California’s Reagan library approaches, we must turn our attention to national security and foreign policy and how they affect domestic issues. 

The growing European refugee crisis will eventually land on U.S. shores if it continues at its current rate. More than 150,000 refugees from various countries entered the European Union in August, bringing the total to more than half a million for the year, according to the EU’s border agency. These countries are facing a hard reality as they attempt to absorb too many refugees with no return to country of origin plan. 

{mosads}The EU and the United Nations see America as the land most able to eventually absorb refugees. This is far from the truth — we do not have unlimited resources to import poverty, not to mention the potentially serious security risk. While we as a country are not so far removed as to stand alone and ignore a worsening crisis, the United States cannot solve all the world’s problems. Common sense must prevail. 

No one in the left-leaning media seems to have the honest desire to ask how many refugees are being absorbed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Indonesia or other nations with predominantly Muslim populations. If Islamic rule is so attractive, why aren’t the refugees headed east toward Mecca, Baghdad and Sanaa, instead of west? And aren’t Kuwait and Saudi Arabia supposed to be our good friends? 

Saudi Arabia, as the world’s leading oil exporter and second-largest producer in the Middle East, is one of the richest nations — and it’s home to a large, empty camp city, with air-conditioned tents and the comforts of everyday life that accommodates 3 million people every year during the renowned pilgrimage to Mecca. Why do we dismiss that this is not being used to accommodate refugees?

Often the simplest answer is the best. It’s in the interest of these Middle Eastern countries to export their poverty to the West, changing the culture of the West over time as they work to win the war of the womb in converting nations. 

Western values were shaped by ancient Hellenic values: freedom of press, freedom to vote, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom of trade and so on. Almost all countries that adopted these values received, in turn, dominance in knowledge and technology, wealth, military and diplomatic power and health. Those who did not got theocracies, poverty, corruption, death and destruction. 

That’s why much of the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa remains a vast darkness by comparison. If it weren’t for oil, the Middle East would be worse than sub-Saharan Africa. We in the West have a duty to stand up to cultural destruction and fight for Western values and what we have meant to the world for more than two centuries.

Let’s consider another factor in this issue. President Obama’s Iran deal plays a vitally destructive role in the future decade or two in the Middle East. By allowing Iran to grow its economy once sanctions are lifted, we will allow that country to continue to fund terrorism and proxy wars, moving closer to its goal of becoming the hegemon in the Middle East and eventually the nuclear hegemon. 

In Congress and around concerned quarters across the U.S., it’s being asked why this nuclear deal is not a treaty. The answer here is also simple. A treaty would be subject to not only the initial vote and scrutiny but to future review by our elected representatives in Washington, D.C. 

Leftist ideology has trumped common sense. One example is Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), who once had strong reservations about the sanctions relief for nuclear restrictions reached in July between Iran and the European countries negotiating the deal. He then signed off on it with a Yiddish proverb: “A shlekhter sholem iz beser vi a guter krig” — a bad peace is better than a good war.

I leave the reader to ponder this statement while reflecting on similar moments in history. Ask yourself, of all the presidential candidates, who do you want sitting at the table across from the EU and U.N. leadership, Vladimir Putin and the ayatollah?

Webb is host of “The David Webb Show” on SiriusXM Patriot 125, a Fox News contributor and has appeared frequently on television as a commentator. Webb co-founded TeaParty365 in New York City and is a spokesman for the National Tea Party Federation. His column appears twice a month in The Hill.