My view regarding the recent travel ban against nationals from 6 predominantly Muslim Nations

People from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia are effectively banned from entering the U.S for the next 120 days.

What is the context of the travel ban?

America’s persistence or insistence on promoting democratic governance, a Western based value system, and a veritable westernization of nations that have fundamentally different religious, moral, and political superstructures is an undertaking that can only lead to dire consequences. Two of the countries included on the recent travel ban (Libya and Syria) were recipients of the Arab Spring—being part of the consortium of nations for which America had a vested interest in regime change. The other nations include Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Morocco, and Jordan.

Although the U.S was successful in toppling the regimes of Saddam and Gaddafi, beyond this it accomplished little. The demolition of infrastructure, the dissipation of working governments, broken and waning economies, the emergence of regional factions vying to fill and empty vacuum, and a mass migrant movement across Europe are a few of the tokens of the war with Libya and Iraq.

American interest in controlling the movement of energy resources, and restricting the ability of Middle Eastern nations such as Iran from gaining military hegemony has cast it in an unfavorable light. Far from being a purveyor of peace it is an interfering nation—a bully exerting its unilateral will against vulnerable populations.

What are the potential results of the ban?

I think this policy implementation is predicated upon two basic motivations. The first is connected to ideological differences between peoples of the Middle East and those from the West. The second is a result of fear, precipitated by an American foreign policy gone awry in the Middle East. American involvement in Iraq and Syria, and the ensuing carnage left behind is a testimony to the international community of her draconian methodologies.

An all-out travel ban against nationals from the aforementioned countries could be the unwitting cultivation of an incubator for greater terrorist activities, and could potentially elicit the sympathy of lone-wolf operators sensitive to the cause of justice. It is also likely that it will cater to increased activities amongst Muslim radicals. The enactment of such an overarching and expansive policy initiative is essentially a declaration of war against a nation and its citizens—it is a position that will only serve to fan the flames of those already holding anti-American sentiments.

~ Anoymous