… but we’re still trying to do it in Kabul.
Let’s consider the case of Najibullah Zazi, who speaks English and has lived in Flushing, Queens (New York City) and Denver, Colorado. Subsequent to Mr. Zazi’s first trip to Pakistan for terrorism training, it took the FBI at least two years to figure out that this guy was planning to attack his neighbors here in the U.S.
We’re going into our ninth year of war in Afghanistan, attempting more or less the same task: sorting out the Afghans who want to kill Americans from those who don’t. We don’t speak the language, we don’t know the terrain, and yet we’re trying to do what we were barely able to do in Queens.
[Zazi is a good example of why we might want to consider changing our immigration policy along the lines suggested in my economic recovery plan. He was a legal immigrant to the U.S. at the age of 7. He would have been educated in the New York City public schools, some of the most expensive in the world. Let’s say 10 years times $15,000 or $150,000. He filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, costing U.S. creditors $52,000. His career as a would-be terrorist will probably cost at least $5 million in FBI salaries and legal process. Fear of similar activities by Mr. Zazi’s colleagues should result in security costs and reduced economic activity running into the hundreds of millions of dollars.]
He moved to Pakistan at age 7, no the US. Not clear when from the articles I read when but it he came to New York around high-school age. At one point people think of him as stupid, yet he had no trouble recalling his customers favorite orders. He went to a bad school, 56% graduation rate, average SAT scores of 857. He worked hard and yet could not afford his very modest $1,108 monthly expenses. I am guessing the biggest expenses were his plane tickets, which likely grew exponentially with the exorbitant interest rates typically charged. He was unlikely to have health insurance. He was constantly serving people who lived orders of magnitude better than him. He had no future, I am not surprised he snapped. Let me see you working for $5 an hour ($800 monthly) and be happy.
Tekumse: If every person in the U.S. who is working for low wages, who attended a bad school, or who is unhappy for some other reason turns to terrorism, we’re in a lot of trouble, especially post-Crash of 2008. If Zazi’s education and skills could not ensure him a terrorism-free lifestyle in the U.S., does that not call into question our immigration policies? Why would we admit people as legal residents if they are guaranteed to become terrorists?