Mr. Thorpe, in his October 17, 2001 article titled “Sorry, fellas, you all have gotta go”, put forth the argument that, since “all terrorists are Arabs”, we should deport all of the visiting Arabs that are here on temporary visas. I’m not going to bother with racial or religious discrimination or other “liberal” arguments of that nature. Let’s look at this from a purely utilitarian standpoint:

Benefits:

1. No Arab terrorist attacks after deportation until we allow them back
2. No racial assaults against Arabs (you can’t attack people who aren’t here)

Costs:

1. Economic loss, as many former consumers leave the country
2. Job void, as many jobs formerly held by the Arabs are suddenly vacant
3. Even more hatred of the U.S. by Arab countries, including and of most concern those countries with whom we are not at war with (assuming that people from those countries would be sent home; maybe you only want the Arabs from our enemy countries to get sent home)
4. Disapproval of many other countries in the U.N. who might be just “liberal” enough to see this as racial profiling and discrimination (hmmm, where would they get that idea?)
5. A high probability of many attacks in a short period of time (if you’re a terrorist, and you’re going to be deported, wouldn’t you hurry up and get your terrorism done?)
6. A backlash against the Republicans by the Democrats and many moderates, resulting in Democrats getting elected more frequently and diminishing the power of the Republicans (or maybe this should be in the Benefits part…)
7. Most importantly, a precedent that whenever the U.S. is at war with a country, all visitors to the country will be sent home, resulting in a deep distrust of the U.S. and a sharp decrease in immigration

Note, of course, that the costs and benefits cannot be compared one-for-one; the fact that there are 7 costs and 2 benefits does not inherently mean that your position is the wrong one to take. However, the first benefit of your plan would only be protection from terrorist attacks, from Arabs, for the relatively short period after deportation and before we allow Arabs back. I somewhat doubt that you would seriously suggest that we never allow another Arab to immigrate here, and even if we did, it would still not prevent terrorist attacks. They could merely get one of their allies to send a terrorist over, or have one of their people get nationality status in another country, and then get a visa to come over here and bomb some buildings. The point is, at best it would protect us for a short time, and as I stated in number 5 of the costs, any terrorists that are already here would probably take care of their business before they were forced to deport. So no real protection would happen.

And really, benefit 2 is almost tongue-in-cheek. That’s not really much of a benefit, considering its cause. Therefore, Mr. Thorpe, your plan is completely useless.

Jonathon D. Jones, Clarkston Junior