We should be flying Estonians here by the thousands – free

Four days ago in Estonia, President Bush was asked what he could do to make it easier for Estonians to travel visa-free the United States.

The president said he was working with Congress to make that happen. But apparently the related travel-security measures are taking so long that the Eastern Europeans, who have sent troops to Iraq and have other democratic values in common with us, are sorely frustrated.

So let’s bring ’em here right away, immediately, now.

‘As if we owe them.’ A correspondent for The Economist reports that the leaders of Eastern Europe, now free of Soviet oppression for 15 years, expected more generosity from the United States, especially after their support for Iraq.

The politicians who pushed their unwilling countries to go along with that feel pretty uneasy now, not just because Iraq itself has been going badly, but because they have had so little in return. America has proved unwilling to offer much in the way of military assistance; nor has it liberalised the visa regime. “Our boys are good enough to die in Iraq, but not good enough to get a tourist visa in America”, a senior Baltic politician complained to me recently.

The administration is bemused by this. “The atmosphere is as if we owe them,” says a State Department Europe-watcher. The American feeling is that those who join the a coalition of the willing should do it because they are willing, not because they want a favour.

(Of course, the Economist puts the worst spin on the story: The Eastern Europeans are victims, and the U.S. State Department doesn’t care. That reflects the normal Economist bias.)

Rewarding solidarity. It is true that, in the vast scheme of things, the Eastern Europeans are not doing the United States a favor by sending troops to Iraq. They are doing the world a favor, and more immediately, they are doing the Iraqis a favor. They should expect no favor in return.

But it also is true that the East Europeans’ solidarity in the fight to free oppressed people has helped America, if only by shaming the Western European appeasers who are too selfish to acknowledge there are defenseless non-Europeans worth defending.

So give the East Europeans their visas faster, or waive the visas altogether.

Qualify quicker. After talking with the Estonian President Toomas Ilves on Nov. 28, Bush said he wants the visas waived for Eastern Europeans as soon as a new travel security system is in place:

“I am pleased to announce that I’m going to work with our Congress and our international partners to modify our Visa Waiver Program. It’s a way to make sure that nations like Estonia qualify more quickly for the program and, at the same time, strengthen the program’s security components.

“The new security component of the visa waiver program would use modern technology to improve the security regime for international travelers to and from the United States. In other words, we need to know who is coming, and when they’re leaving.”

Something now. Let’s not wait. Let’s cut through the red tape. I know it’s hard to waive visas and protect the skies from terrorists. Some security experts oppose waiving visas even to the 27 nations already in the Visa Waiver Program. But it seems we can make a goodwill gesture.

Let’s find about 10,000 East Europeans who want to visit the U.S. and who we’re sure won’t be a security problem, and let’s grant them visas and give them free plane tickets.

We’ve got a lot of things to catch up on with the Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians, who were forced to live 50 years as part of the Soviet Union’s police state. Let’s bring them here to talk about freedom.

Bring ’em here. Also invite the citizens of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Ukraine and Poland, and even their west Asian neighbors of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan. They’ve all sent troops to help free Iraq, and they all once knew Soviet tyranny.

The Cold War is over. Let’s have that long-delayed celebration. Fly our East European friends here to the party.

Frank Warner

Comments

[Christopher Taylor]

There has been a need for changes in the immigration and visa system for years, I'm glad to see some changes in planning, but more is needed. And definitely, lets open our borders to Eastern Europe and be a little more reticent to accept some Western Europeans into the country.

[Frank Warner]

It seems the problem with waiving visas is that it removes the advance screening and forces overwhelmed border officials to make snap judgments (and they'd just rather say yes to everyone). There has to be a way to speed up the advance screening.