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Can defense and justice system head off terrorism?

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Every fiscal year the U.S government allocates billions of dollars from our national treasury to maintain what our political establishment calls a strong defense. That, I believe, is good sense.

My questions is, where is the beef?

In light of the recent mass shootings by terrorists (San Bernardino and Orlando), our politicians are showing fear. The defense formula they adopted is full of holes, and none of the smart or dumb bombs can help alleviate the issue. The political rhetoric has turned to the “new laws formula,” and the call to war is beginning to resonate all over.

The media has begun to present the interviews of our “defense experts” and the political parade has gone into full swing. Where were the “experts” before the attacks? After the fact, anyone can be an expert. The political candidates are pointing crossed fingers at each other and promising more of the same formula. One difference, though — this time they assure us that the round peg is really going to fit perfectly in the square hole.

Life is terminal, and we need to make choices for the benefit and well-being of all of us and of future generations. I believe that more war is a huge mistake and is not going to solve a thing, other than worsen an already weak economy and embolden more terrorists. Here I would like to paraphrase President Ronald Reagan: war is not the solution, war is the problem.

The cost of waging war is ruining our nation, as much morally as economically. We, as a nation, are in need of reassessing our priorities, or in the not to distant future our cities are going to look like the ruins of the Roman Empire — once great cities, now a past story of power, greed and grandeur.

We have always taken pride in the fact that we are a nation of law and order. In an effort of maintaining some degree of civil control, our legislators criminalize just about everything from A to Z, none of which really protects anyone. No law in existence protects anyone against the crime for which that law was written. Instead our justice system clings to the old Middle Eastern philosophy of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Our justice system became a massive political and commercial enterprise of which only the victims are losers. A holy mess of contradictory and unnecessary laws, bylaws, codes, ordinances, mandate, etc., etc., to be enforced by: the local police, sheriffs, rangers, border patrol, national security, marshals, attorney general police, state police, inspectors, FBI — and the beat goes on. In many respects some of the laws are totally worthless — and unnecessary, assuming we can live by a reasonably high degree of civic convictions.

New laws are not the solution for terrorism and/or crime. We need to take a break and try to educate our people in civism, and here is why: Our justice system has not caused a decrease in unruly citizens, but instead it has become a huge human warehousing business. We build our prisons and the laws cause them to be filled almost as soon as the prisons are built. Something is definitely wrong with the system, and it will take years and ownership by our politicians to solve our problems. But if we went to the moon and solved huge obstacles, the solving of our social problems is doable, I believe, in one generation if we set our might to do it.

The call to stop some people from reaching our soil and entering the U.S. is a natural human reaction. None of us wants to become the victim of what I call an armed baboon infected with the holy syndrome of religion. We do not need to import them; we have our own home brew.

If you add to that the fact that all of us want to preserve our rights and freedoms and live in relative peace, then you have the answer: As Louis said in “Casablanca,” “Round up the usual suspects,” and keep the rest as far away from our shores as possible. When a ship is taking on water, you do not make the hole larger. You mend the little hole.

May the force of reason inspire us all, especially our dear politicians.

Oscar A. Quinones is a Ramona resident.

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