Working both sides of the border

My parents-in-law live in Raleigh, NC. Big NDP supporters in Canada but have to default to the radical wing of the Democrats in the US. Seems John has been busy there getting this letter into The News & Observer.

Reading “ID Rules to tighten Canadian border”, Jan. 18, I wonder if Mr. Chertoff is spending too much time worrying about what he'll be doing next year instead of thinking about his job.

Have any of his planners ever seen the Canadian border? It's impressively long and famously undefended. I don't understand why a terrorist who wanted to come from Canada would wait in line at an official crossing. I doubt if a terrorist would be upset to know that he was here illegally. Why would a terrorist bother to come through Canada, apart from the fact that it's a nice place to visit? The 911 terrorists came straight to America from overseas.

We're misusing resources tightening up the Canadian border. Osama and his friends must be amazed at all the stupid, expensive things he's scared us into doing. Of course we should be taking precautions. For example, we should be using every Arabic-speaking intelligence specialist we can find, not firing any who happen to be gay. And we should put resources into securing our ports, which are much more vulnerable to people trying to smuggle weapons.

If Mr. Chertoff is worried about what he'll be doing this time next year, he has a better grasp on reality than I give him credit for. Or if not, he may understand very well that reality is different if you have the right connections.

John Mainwaring,
Raleigh