Zemanifesto – Oct. 6, 2010

By Greg Zeman
The Guardsman

A dream deferred

The National Defense Authorization Act, a bill which contained both the DREAM Act and the repeal of the U.S Military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, was successfully stalled by a predominantly Republican filibuster.

With a legislature full of Democrat incumbents facing mid-term elections who are “stuck” in their usual predicament—their base resents them for not doing enough, almost as much as their steam-building opposition despises them for doing too much—it isn’t hard to see why.

I don’t usually do predictions—far be it from me to step on the freakishly-long toes of esteemed contributor Bontá Hill, but November is going to be a blood bath for the Democrats. I believe that a return to Republican know-nothing policies on immigration and other issues, will only perpetuate the social ills our nation is currently suffering from, although the Democrats really have nobody but themselves to blame, as usual.

But why should AB540 students, who I consider Americans by merit of their uphill struggle to educate themselves and contribute to our economy as productive workers, have to suffer for the failings of this country’s impotent, legislative left?

On the other hand

I don’t fully trust the motives behind this bill.

The U.S Military is facing extreme challenges in meeting recruitment goals and retaining career soldiers. Something tells me that the provision in the DREAM Act that opens military service as a path to naturalization (for a largely desperate and economically deprived undocumented population), gets the suits at the Defense Department all hot and wrinkly.

And who can blame them?

With so many Americans demanding foreign wars with our misplaced votes, our silence in the face of tax-funded atrocities and our globally destructive lifestyle choices, the job of actually carrying out these wars of aggression has to fall to somebody.

And like slaving in a field for next to nothing, that job has become one that most Americans do not seem to want for themselves.

A 2009 CBS News poll showed that 76 percent of those asked were opposed to re-instating a military draft, and even the most recent Fox News poll (2004), showed that over half of respondents were against a draft.

I stand by the editorial line we have taken on the potential benefits of the DREAM Act for undocumented students, but it is advisable to beware the potential of a ‘razor blade in the apple.’