From Time Magazine:Leon Panetta knew it was going to be a hard sale, and so the CIA director dished out some serious hard sell as he tried to drum up support for the agency from Arab Americans in the most Arab city in the country. On Wednesday, the CIA invited 150 community leaders in Dearborn, Mich., to a lavish iftar, the traditional evening feast at the end of each day's fasting during the month of Ramadan. The CIA and the FBI have made strenuous efforts to sign up Arab Americans in recent years, but the suspicions and recriminations since 9/11 have not made it easy. Panetta's appearance in Dearborn is the highest-profile recruiting effort to date.
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My Comment: I can relate and sympathize with what many in the Arab community may feel like in Dearborn, Michihan .... but only to a point. I am a Russian Canadian who was born in Canada, but whose parents were born in the former Soviet Union. During the height of the Cold War, being a person of Russian nationality was not an ideal situation to be in.
Even though I was born in Canada, any idea of working in sensitive areas of government or the military was off limits. I was profiled as a security threat, even though my loyalties were and are 100% Canadian.
But if I was called upon to serve .... quite frankly .... I would have done so at a drop of a hat. The Arab-Americans have been asked to serve .... those who could should also do so at a drop of a hat, regardless of what some people may feel or what policy of profiling may exist. Besides .... all things do not last forever, the environment will change one day and when that happens you will be even more proud that you have served.
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