Military Matters: Refugees and youth gangs

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- One of Fourth Generation war's more effective Trojan horses is refugees. They arrive on someone's shore desperate, pathetic, deeply grateful for the smallest crust or copper flung their way. Only a Scrooge could have a heart so cold as to turn them away.

Regrettably, in a Fourth Generation world, Western countries need lots of Scrooges in charge of their immigration policies. A story in the July 15 New York Times by Theo Emery, "In Nashville, a Street Gang Emerges in a Kurdish Enclave," tells an all-too-common story:

"Miles from downtown, Nashville's southern neighborhoods are home to a thriving enclave of Kurdish immigrants. …

"Bound by a common language and ethnicity, Kurds here tend to shun attention. But a growing problem has turned an unwanted spotlight on a group called the Kurdish Pride Gang, thought to be the nation's only Kurdish street gang. …

"Police officials say that Kurdish Pride members have grown increasingly vicious and brazen. Investigators believe that the gang has committed about 110 home burglaries since January, including two involving rapes, said Mark Anderson, a Nashville police detective who works in a gang unit.

"In a case involving the rape of a pregnant victim, a 17-year-old suspect, Zana Noroly, hanged himself in his jail cell in April. Messages in his memory are ubiquitous on the Web pages of Kurdish youth. …

"Earlier this month, a grand jury indicted four members of the gang for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in a case in which a gang leader, Aka Nejad, is accused of shooting at a park policeman who interrupted a drug deal last year."

This particular imported 4GW problem -- gangs are a major source of Fourth Generation war -- comes from a group of refugees who are, on other counts, models. Kurds are generally hard-working, competent, family-oriented people who quickly become members of the middle class. Again quoting police officer Mark Anderson, the Times story notes:

"'Kurdish Pride are not the kind of kids that normally join gangs.

"'For the most part, they come from two-parent homes, they come from families with a strong work ethic, where education is important,' he said."

The Times also notes that most Nashville Kurds are deeply distressed by Kurdish Pride. It quotes Kirmanj Gundi, a professor at Tennessee State University in Nashville:

"'We did everything to build a good reputation here in Nashville and elsewhere,' said Mr. Gundi, 46, who is Kurdish, 'and all of a sudden a few irresponsible hoodlums have tried to tarnish the reputations we've been working so hard over the years to create. That's sad.'"

The root of the problem, as is usual in Fourth Generation war, is loyalty. As the Times story says, the Kurds, like virtually all refugees from other cultures, are "bound by a common language and ethnicity." Those bonds are stronger than formal U.S. citizenship, and they provide a rich soil in which 4GW can grow. In America's poisonous popular culture, the necessary seeds are quickly planted among young men by the same rock and rap music, video games and examples from the culturally disintegrated black community that have overwhelmed Hispanics and other immigrants. As always, the cultural Marxists fly cover over the whole diabolical mess, labeling any serious discussion of the problem "racism."

Once a state faces 4GW springing from a community of refugees, its options are limited. It can adopt a variant of the old Ottoman millet system and demand that the community police itself, or it can try to attack the problem directly through the police. Both approaches usually founder on the same bonds of a common language and culture that provide the alternate primary loyalty. The millet system also accepts the weakness of the state as a given, which in turn accelerates the state’s decline.

In the real world, as opposed to the dream world of "multiculturalist" ideologues, there is only one way to prevent refugees from other cultures from serving as Trojan horses for Fourth Generation war: Do not admit them. They are carrying a plague for which states have no cure. It may seem heartless to turn plague carriers away at the door, but it is also necessary to survival. When the state's fundamental peace, security and order are at stake, the head, not the heart, must be the governing organ. America in particular must learn this lesson fast -- for much of Europe, it is already too late -- as cries grow to admit hordes of refugees from Iraq.

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(William S. Lind, expressing his own personal opinion, is director for the Center for Cultural Conservatism for the Free Congress Foundation.)