A Foreign Idea: If Ronald Reagan could build a wall in space to protect the U.S. from incoming missiles, why can’t President George W. Bush build a wall to keep out incoming immigrants?

Building Security Central: Step One

by Sherry Harbert

President George W. Bush has little to look forward to in his last years in office. He’s got a hefty tax payment due this month, his numbers are dropping like bombs over Iran (or was that Baghdad?), and he’s laden with propping up his administration—those indicted, implicated or merely scorned. One might argue that destroying U.S. credibility abroad continues to appear on his “things to do,” but it doesn’t muster the levels necessary for a true legacy. There are just too many players in his administration vying for that honor.

What is more disheartening is his “Oil for Addicts” program continues to receive such bad press. Imagine calling out the elephant in the room and not even getting credit for it! Must be politics. Operation Iraq was meant to cure them, but such interventions are never enough. The sickness runs too deep. Every time I’m behind a huge SUV with a “W” sticker on the end, I have to remind myself that the driver is just a victim. Otherwise, I would be just another energy enabler who focuses on the human and environmental degradation, rather than the driver’s low self-esteem. Why else would such people count towards a quarter of the world’s consumption of oil for mere image gratification?

Oil addiction has yet to register on any substance abuse list, but it is sure to appear soon. Then, it can be appropriately handled by the pharmaceutical industry instead of the oil industry. It could be an entirely new industry for Halliburton and bring things full circle. Filling a gas tank is much easier than filling out the forms in the Medicare plan for prescription drugs. Of course, there would actually have to be a plan…

But even that is still too late for Bush’s legacy. He needs something big—something Reaganesque.

There is one way Bush can rise to the level of President Ronald Reagan and instead of a mere airport, get much more named after him. After all, it is Reagan’s shadow that has loomed over Bush’s tenure in the White House. Reagan is attributed to destroying the Cold War by his decisive jab at the former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” Bush could use a similar tactic, but for a new beginning, a new war and a new wall.

Unlike his “mission accomplished” decree aboard a Navy carrier that now is sinking to new depths with the Iraq War, Bush can build his crowning moment with a wall. He could regain his stature with Republicans and all the anti-immigration forces with a simple wall, all the while usurping potential presidential candidates for the 2008 Republican Party.

Picture Bush standing tall along the border with Texas and Mexico. The Minutemen proudly stand to one side, while children holding a bounty of American crops stand at the other. Bush begins with the necessary platitudes, and then signals the cameras to pull in tighter. He looks directly at the cameras and utters his utopian call, “Mr. Fox, build up that wall!” A slight smirk emerges briefly, before he regains his composure. Okay, this is where he stumbles, but that’s nothing new.

He proceeds to seal America’s fear of invasion and terrorism. With only five years of cementing this fear into the minds of many Americans, Bush has succeeded farther than he could ever imagine. The Pew Research Center finds little has changed in the minds of most Americans worried about the next big attack. Luckily for the Bush Administration, fear sells. And the rewards are great. In the weeks after September 11, 2001, 73 percent of Americans worried about another eminent attack. There was only a slight drop through 2005, when 68 percent were worried about such attacks. Those percentages have paid for Bush’s second term in office. But Bush likes to overspend.

His financial irresponsibility isn’t limited to the U.S.

 “We cannot stand by while those south of us have the potential to bombard us with produce. We cannot be overrun by cheap labor. That is what NAFTA was supposed to do for Mexico,” Bush tells his audience. “That is what we’re supposed to do to them.”

So no amount of rotten tomatoes will deter his plans. His investors are still buying into it. They know he’s keeping them secure and free—free from thought, free from the hassles of working with others. They’ve already given up much of their freedoms, security and future for it. What’s another country, or two, or three… Doesn’t it give you a secure feeling?

Contact: sharbert@foreigninterest.com

© 2006 Foreign Interest. All rights reserved.