WWI and on...

In class this week we learned about the outcome of WWI on the Middle East and how territory got divided up. Its strange how France and England can just take an area that used to be divided of 2 rival groups and then bring them together by saying those 2 regions are now 1. Maybe thats why a lot of these attempted treaties by England and France failed. Woodrow Wilson posed some attractive ideas for the Middle East in his 14 points...especially the point where he says that places should be able to decide their own governing system and be able to just rule themselves in any which we they decide. Unforunately, this did not end up panning out the way the Middle East has hoped.
I'd like to share an interesting feeling i have towards Middle Eastern profiling.
America is built upon the fact that this nation is made up of immigrants from various countries. That is what makes The United States so special and unique. Looking back in history for example, World War II, Japanese immigrants, native born citizens, and legal residents were interned in camps. Even though it may have taken some time, The United States government eventually apologized for the discriminating acts and paid reparations to the Japanese later on. Considering the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States, it is understandable why people may categorize Muslims and Arabs with the attack. As people of this country we want to stop these suicidal terrorists and check everyone that may fit the profile however, is it possible that this may become a standard procedure in law? What we need to do is analyze our history and think about how profiling has maybe hurt us in the past. Using race or ethnic appearance as part of a description of particular suspects may be helpful, but using it as a broad predictor will most definitely hurt our investigative efforts. Profiling Arabs and Muslims would be an ineffective waste of law enforcement.
A good example of profiling being ineffective and misleading would be how African Americans are disproportionately involved in drug crime. The Drug Enforcement Administration just focused on them. Now, we find out that the police in many jurisdictions were using racial profiling to determine these results. Latinos and African American are only responsible for a small percentage of the drug trade. Race and ethnicity of those two groups do a bad job of identifying the particular suspects police should be interested in. The rates of successful searches of Latino, African American, and minorities were actually lower than they were for whites. Race and ethnic appearance are very poor predictors just own their own for determining behavior. Another reason why Middle Eastern profiling should not be justified is the fact that it is pretty much assuming that Muslims and Arabs are the only terrorist parties out there. The most deadly attacks on American soil before September 11th was by two white men from the United States. This is why we should not just assume those terrorists are one race or ethnicity. We just do not know who might do damage to our country next. We must not subject what our country is best known for or what we think may be an answer in predicting the next terrorist. We must find more effective and efficient ways of looking at these issues.