For whatever reason former President George W Bush wanted to invade Iraq and remove Saddam from power. Even before 9/11 he'd addressed this with his cabinet urging them to find a reason to invade. After 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan Bush believed he had the perfect opportunity. He directed the US intelligence services to conduct a limited investigation into Iraq's WMD programs and to find anything that he could use to claim that Iraq had WMD's and active WMD programs. It wasn't a comprehensive intelligence gather effort but instead one that started out with a conclusion and then looked for evidence to support the conclusion. Of course the US (and British) intelligence services had a lot of information on Iraq's WMD's and WMD programs from the 1980's (prior to the Gulf War when the UN forces destroyed Iraq's WMD facilities and weapons) and we interviewed Iraqi expatriates that had left Iraq prior to the Gulf War because they where Shi'ites wanted to overthrow Saddam and they said Iraq had WMD's and WMD programs but they were not above lying to the US to get us to invade. Our intelligence also provided information that Iraq was purchasing "precursors" for chemical weapons that are also used for common household purposes like chlorine used in common household bleach. Added to all of that "evidence" the Bush Administration also "implied" that Iraq was involved with the 9/11 attacks and with al Qaeda that was pure BS. Of course the Bush Administration also had to completely ignore the actually current and accurate intelligence coming from the UN Weapons Inspectors that had unlimited access, that the US could direct to any suspected location, and that was reporting with 100% confidence that Iraq didn't have any WMD production facilities and that zero evidence of any functional WMD's had been found, and that give just a few more months could certify with absolute confidence that Iraq had no WMD's. That report pushed the Bush administration over the top so it invaded Iraq, ignoring even the specific requirements in the "Iraq War Resolution" from Congress, and we found out that the UN Weapon's Inspectors were 100% accurate. Iraq had no WMD's or WMD programs and the invasion of Iraq, the overthrowing of Saddam, and the installation of a tyrannical Shi'ite government in Iraq is responsible for ISIS and many other problems in the Middle East. Only about 20% of Americans weren't fooled by the Bush Administration's premeditated misleading of both Congress and the American people in rationalizing their desired invasion of Iraq for the sole purpose of overthrowing Saddam based upon any excuse they could come up with. We, or at least 80% of us, Were Fooled by the Bush Administration in 2002-2003. Here we are 15 years later and we're fortunate because more than 20% of American know that Donald Trump is attempting to pull of the same feat. During his campaign Donald Trump made a promise to his core supporters. This doesn't include the Republicans that "vote the party ticket" or those independents that voted for Donald Trump because they objected to Hillary Clinton that resulted in Trump being elected. The "core supporters" are the "Alt-Right" of Steve "Turn up the Hate" Bannon that are comprised of the White Supremacists/White Nationalists/Neo-Nazis/KKK members that endorsed Donald Trump for his disparaging remarks about Mexicans, Chinese, and of course the Muslims that these religiously intolerant members of the Alt-Right truly hate. Trump promised these Alt-Right core supporters that he was going to BAN MUSLIMS and the only thing that Trump cares about is that the "crowd roared" with approval. For the narcissist, and Donald Trump clearly a narcissist, the only thing that matters is the "approval of the crowds" and it's doubtful he has any actual personal convictions or morality at all because he'd knife anyone in the back of it resulted in "approval" of the crowd. But the Crowd Roared in Approval and Donald Trump instantly became committed to Banning Muslims. Unfortunately for Donald Trump he couldn't "ban Muslims" because the Constitution prohibits him from doing it. Both leading Democrats and Republicans condemned Donald Trump for even suggesting it but his dedication to doing it didn't waiver because "the crowd roared with approval" whenever he mentioned banning Muslims. He had to figure out a way and fortunately he was aligned with the perfect political party to accomplish that. No one evades the Constitution better than the Republicans. They can't prohibit abortion so they create laws to deny access and to close abortion clinics. They can't deny the vote to blacks so they invent voter ID laws that prevent voter impersonation at the polls, a virtually non-existent violation, claiming it stops other forms of voter fraud when it doesn't, because studies indicate that 25% of blacks have no need for the forms of government ID they list and therefore can't vote because they don't have the ID. The Republicans are masters of deceit when it comes to finding nefarious ways of violating the US Constitution. So Donald Trump reached out to his supporter, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and reiterated that he "wanted to ban Muslims" so how could he do that. Rudy Giuliani has publically stated that this is exactly what happened. http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/...p-asked-me-to-create-a-legal-Muslim-ban-.html The problem is that these Muslim countries are not the danger that is being used for the ban. There's no intelligence reports claiming any creditable threat of people, based upon national origin from the seven countries mentioned, showing any plans or even exploring the possibility of trying to obtain a visa to use to come to the United States and commit an act of terrorism. The basis for identifying these countries is that they're listed on the most recent revision of the "Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act" that isn't addressing people of these nationalities but instead is addressing people of any nationality that goes to these countries and it isn't based specifically upon terrorism, although that's certainly a concern, but instead it's based upon "national security" that covers a broad range of issues. As noted this is a "law" and not an "intelligence report" that identifies a creditable threat. In fact we know that Iran doesn't represent a threat of committing any acts of terrorism in the United States. The threat to the United States is linked to al Qaeda and potentially ISIS although ISIS has made no attempts at committing an international act of terrorism in the United States. Al Qaeda and ISIS are both radical Sunni Muslim groups/movements and Iran is a Shi'ite Muslim nation that's been at war with al Qaeda since at least 9/11 and is actively fighting against ISIS. There are no al Qaeda or ISIS cells in Iran and Iran is constantly searching to eliminate anyone associated with either of these radical Sunni groups. Iran doesn't even commit international acts of terrorism although it is associated with some regional Islamic groups that have been known to commit acts of terrorism. The real threat that the "Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act" would be concerned with is if a radicalized American citizen went to a country like Yemen where al Qaeda, supported by Saudi Arabia and the US indirectly, is active in fighting the Shi'ite rebels from Northern Yemen that captured the capital igniting a civil war. The radicalized American citizen could contact members of al Qaeda and learn terrorist information so they could return to the United States, where they can't be prohibited from re-entering, and committing a terrorist act. A person born in Yemen has virtually no possibility of obtaining a visa to come to the United States because we have significantly improved our visa vetting process employing virtually all of the checks noted in that Donald Trump calls for in his executive order except for biometric tracking that's still under development. Our foreign visa process is so good today that it prevents virtually all attempts that have been made to infiltrate the United States using a visa granted by the US State Department. The notable failure is Tashfeen Malik, the wife of the San Bernardino terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook that was a radicalized US citizen and Tashfeen Malik was admitted on a "fiancé" visa that's one of the least vetted visas to obtain. The San Bernardino terrorist attack was not an international terrorist act but instead was a domestic terrorist attack. Basically, in Trump's executive order he's lying about a threat that doesn't exist and using bogus documents (i.e. a US law) as opposed to a creditable intelligence report. Additionally he lies about the threat by political refugees from Syria. He claims that we've been attacked in the past by political refugees but that's a lie. Of the last 750,000 political refugees allowed into the United States there hasn't been a single case of any of them committing a terrorist act or of being involved in conspiring to commit a terrorist attack. VP Mike Pence should know this for a fact because he recently lost a discrimination lawsuit related to Syrian political refugees because the claim made the his "defense" that the Syrian refugees represent a threat was debunked in the federal court. In fact our political refugee vetting process, or relocation process, and our integration into the American society process of Syrian refugees is outstanding and it's the envy of all other foreign governments dealing with the Syrian refugee problem. The claims that it's in any way deficient is nothing but partisan lying because even the slightest hint of concern with a potential refugee results in them being rejected. First the UN vets the potential refugee and only special cases where the vetting is above all other cases results in a referral to the United States. Before even starting the vetting process we have to determine if they're an ideal candidate for relocation for relocation to the United States and if the answer is yes then the real process begins. Experts from all of out terrorist fighting law enforcement agencies, the FBI, Homeland Security, and the CIA, begin to conduct an intensive interview process where even a slight contradiction can result in the person being bounced out of the refugee program. Any hint of any racial Islamic belief or sympathy for radial Islam results in rejection. The potential refugee goes through months and months of interviews where these top terrorist experts are looking for any indication of anything negative that would be grounds for rejection. Even the most well-trained person cannot keep from slipping up and this process goes on month after month after month normally lasting from 18 months to two years and it can even go on longer until there's absolutely no doubt whatsoever about the refugee. Once approved they are sent to a predetermined place, sometimes with relatives already here, and they have a mentor assigned to them to help them find employment but more importantly to learn about the United States, our culture, and our ideology. These people are literally "coming from hell and going to heaven" and they love America. Once here the Muslim immigrants achieve a higher education, higher income, and higher home ownership statistically when compared to native born Americans. The immigrants become the "best of Americans" because they truly appreciate America because they can compare it to where they came from. Even the anti-Muslim hatred by so many Americans doesn't phase them all that much because they know that they're "protected by the Constitution even when Americans forget about the Constitution completely with their hatred and religious intolerance. The Muslim immigrant doesn't represent the terrorist threat because they embrace America, in spite of the Islamophobia, in spite of the anti-Muslim religious intolerance, in spite of the radical white Protestant Male Supremacist/White Nationalist, because they come from a Muslim country where the government was brutally tyrannical or where their friend and neighbors were murdered by the radical Islamic terrorists and compared to that all of the discrimination and all of the oppression that they experience in America is nothing. The Muslim immigrant is not the threat and international terrorism isn't the real threat to America. Our threat is domestic terrorism that three out of four times is committed by a US citizen that's generally the child of the Muslim immigrant. They don't have the personal history of oppression that their parents have that overcomes the hatred and discrimination against them. They go to our schools where the children of American racist oppress them, discriminate against them, and deny them the American culture by excluding them from the society to which they belong. They become marginalizes without any cultural foundation and that makes them susceptible to the radical propaganda that groups like ISIS and al Qaeda put on the internet. While few are actually recruited it doesn't take many and we've seen that by those like the Boston Marathon bombers, the attack on the gay bar in Florida, and as previously noted the San Bernardino terrorist attacks. https://behavioralpolicy.org/articl...-radicalization-risk-among-muslim-immigrants/ Al Qaeda and ISIS don't need to try and send anyone to the United States to commit an act of terrorism. We're creating their recruits right here in America with our Islamophobia, our religious intolerance, our discrimination, and our hatred of Muslims that marginalizes second and third generation Muslim children. The same people that "roared with approval" when Donald Trump promised to ban Muslims from coming to America are the people that are ultimately responsible for the terrorist threat in America today. Donald Trump is committed to banning Muslims and anyone that believes his executive order isn't expressly about banning Muslims based upon lies and misinformation is a fool Donald Trump is committed because all he cares about is the "roar of the crowd" to feed his delicate narcissistic ego where he believes he's virtually "superhuman" because "Everyone loves and envies Donald Trump." We saw this same commitment to creating a rationalization unsupported by the facts under the Bush Administration and with only 20% identifying it we went to war with Iraq. Today far more than 20%, arguably over 50%, see the same "rationalizations unsupported by facts" coming from the Trump Administration and we even know where it's coming from. It's not really from Donald Trump that has no moral convictions or commitment to any political ideology. Trump just plays to the crowd and literally mirrors their belief that have been based upon intolerance and hatred. Steve "Turn on the Hate" Bannon, the former editor of the Breitbart News that catered to the Alt-Right White Supremacists/White Nationalists/Neo-Nazis/KKK as Trump's chief political advisor is behind the "Hate Muslim" movement that Trump promotes. It is time for the American People, and more importantly the Republican Congressional leadership that condemned Trump's "Ban Muslims" rhetoric the stand up and put Trump down. Congress has the power and either the Republican in Congress will stop Donald Trump or they will support the hatred, the discrimination, and the religious intolerance being promoted by Donald Trump. WE WON'T BE FOOLED AGAIN http://bipartisanreport.com/2017/01...ases-terrifying-diagnosis-of-president-trump/ http://www.heritage.org/research/re...-data-on-international-and-domestic-terrorism http://blogs.findlaw.com/decided/20...ce-discriminated-against-syrian-refugees.html
