Australian Author Recounts 'Awful' Ordeal Trying to Legally Enter the U.S.

Nick Adams, author of the new book Green Card Warrior: My Quest for Legal Immigration in an Illegals' System, joined The Glenn Beck Program on Wednesday to discuss his harrowing experience trying to legally enter the U.S.

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"The United States had a little jihad against Nick. Now, he has his green card," Glenn said.

In his book, Adams details what was supposed to be a routine meeting with the Citizenship and Immigration Service, part of the Department of Homeland Security.

"I got an absolutely awful individual at the U.S. Consulate in Sydney. And that sparked the beginning of what would be ten months of absolute turmoil, impacting my finances, impacting my health, my family's health, my career. And it was just something that I will never ever forget," Adams said.

Read below or watch the clip for answers to these serious questions:

• Why does Nick love America so much?

• How have Nick's pro-American ideas negatively impacted his career?

• Why does Nick believe America is still the most optimistic, energetic place?

• What does Nick describe as political correctness on steroids?

• Who put Nick on a No Fly List and why?

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:

GLENN: Nick Adams, author of a new book, Green Card Warrior: My Quest for Legal Immigration in an Illegals' System.

Nick is a good friend of the program, been a friend of ours for a long time, and the last time he was here, he said, "I don't know if I'm going to be able to come back." The United States had a little jihad against Nick. Now, he has his green card now.

It has taken you how many years?

NICK: Four and a half years.

GLENN: Four and a half years. How much money?

NICK: $50,000.

GLENN: $50,000. Now, here's what happened. Because the book details all of this, and it's a great read. And if you really want to know what's happening in our country, read this book.

You were -- you were on the track to get a green card as a -- what do you call it? Extraordinary Ability?

NICK: Extraordinary Ability green card. That's right.

GLENN: So what you have to do is prove that you're the top 1 percent of your field, your profession, and you can get a green card. But you were put on a No Fly List.

NICK: Well, that's exactly right, Glenn. So I had an Extraordinary Ability green card approved petition. So the Citizenship and Immigration Service, part of the Department of Homeland Security, they make the assessment on whether or not you qualify for a green card. The very last step for anybody that is going to get a visa or a green card to enter the United States is a formality meeting that occurs at the local consulate or embassy in your home country, where you pony up and you show your passport, the original of your birth certificate, your police check, and your medical check. It's meant to be very routine, very procedural.

Well, mine was anything but. I got an absolutely awful individual at the U.S. Consulate in Sydney. And that sparked the beginning of what would be ten months of absolute turmoil, impacting my finances, impacting my health, my family's health, my career. And it was just something that I will never ever forget. I mean, I -- those --

GLENN: So who was the individual? Let's start with this. You said -- I mean, your idea of America came from a doctor who diagnosed you with cancer when you were really young and helped cure you. And you've always looked up at America.

You have been so pro-American that you actually were losing jobs in your home country because you were not liked because of your view of America, correct?

NICK: Well, that's exactly right, Glenn. I think -- all my adult life, I've been fighting the ogre of the left. It started when I was a third-year university student, and I was denied an internship at the national broadcaster in Australia.

It continued when I was involved in politics, being publicly elected at the age of 19 at the local government in Sydney and becoming the youngest deputy mayor in Australian history at 21, when the little totalitarians in my own conservative party decided to vilify me because I was outspoken.

It continued when I was a high school teacher. And, yes, you're right, as I've gained prominence in the United States, particularly in the last or three years, I've become unemployable. I can't get a job in Australia because I go on Fox News, because I go on TheBlaze, and because I'm a patriot.

And that's a really, really big problem. And it's part of the reason why I wanted to come to the United States. So I recognize that I --

GLENN: It's not going to get better for you here.

(laughter)

NICK: Well, I'm working on turning it around. I'm working on turning it around. Even with all of the problems that America has got right now, this is still the most optimistic, energetic place. This is still the place where you can rise above the circumstances.

GLENN: So when you were going into the consulate -- you describe it in the book as a very gray, drab, and mean person that you're coming into and a drab, ugly building.

Would you have felt the same way if that was the image of America that you had when you were young? You had the -- I mean, it's not the same image.

NICK: Well, no, it's not. And it's really interesting, Glenn. That the consulate looked and felt entirely different to real America. And I know that that's something that's close to your heart. Real America is warm. There's enthusiastic patriotism. There is generous hospitality. There are people that are really colorful and identities.

And this place was just political correctness on steroids. I mean, it was -- there was nothing on the walls. It was completely and utterly gray, as I describe it in the book, and as you have outlined.

So I -- I mean, I went in there wanting to get my job done. And, unfortunately, I couldn't.

And this is the first documented case that we have of the State Department. Because all consulates and all embassies come under the State Department. This is the first documented case we have of the Hillary Clinton State Department, of the John Kerry State Department, of the State Department under the Obama administration, using the legal immigration office to vet or screen potential immigrants based on their politics.

Because what our investigations uncovered -- and this is all in the book. This is explosive. This is a tell-all. Green Card Warrior is a tell-all, explosive, blockbuster book, which I think is going to impact this election and catapult immigration back to the forefront of discussions.

Because what's happening right now is just wrong. Good people struggle to come here, and bad people get to come here legally. And now investigations uncovered that the individual that was at the center of this has got political views that are the opposite of mine, has a different sexual orientation than me, and it's very clear that all of that fit in to my case being sent back to citizenship and immigration services with a recommendation that it had been revoked.

GLENN: Okay. Now, wait a minute. Did this person put your name on a No Fly List?

NICK: Well, I don't know for sure if that person put me on a No Fly List. I was on a No Fly List because my family and I, as I detail in the book, were trying to fly to the United States. I was with my mum and dad, and we were turned away.

JEFFY: They didn't let you know ahead of time? They waited until you got to the airport?

NICK: That's exactly right.

And the not authorized travel document is in Green Card Warrior. So I was put on a No Fly List. I couldn't travel here. And there are so many things about the legal immigration system that people don't know.

Glenn, had it not been for some very courageous senators and congressmen that stood up for me and represented me to the Citizenship and Immigration Service, I likely wouldn't be able to be here today. Because had my application been revoked, had they agreed with the recommendation of this official in the U.S. Consulate in Sydney, not only would I not have gotten a green card, there's something in the law called immigrant intent.

And immigrant intent stipulates that if you have formerly demonstrated a desire to be a permanent resident of the United States and the government knocks you back, they reject you, then you are never, ever again allowed to reenter the United States in your lifetime. That is a fact that no one knows.

So here I am facing a lifetime ban of coming to the country that I love so much, that I've worked so hard to build a life and a career in. I was in negotiations with Fox News. Things were happening for me. I had a new nonprofit.

I had no future or career in my own country. And then the country that I love, I was staring down the barrel of never being able to go back. I was the ultimate refugee. But no one ever spoke about me. No one cared about me.

And those nights that I spent -- I mean, I get emotional when I think about it.

GLENN: How did you find out who this person was that --

NICK: Well, I showed some American-style initiative. You see, obviously consulates and embassies around the world these days understandably, because of the threats that are posed by people that don't like America, operate under very strict security.

So I thought, "Well, how do I go about and find out -- because you see, Glenn, I went to my attorneys. And my attorneys said -- I had the best of the best in Manhattan. And they said, "Nick, we've been practicing immigration law for four decades. We have never ever seen anything like this.

Technically, this is a thing called a consular return. It exists under the law, but it is used so sparingly. And anyone that uses this particularly in your case, with you being as high profile as you are, this is very clearly an abuse of power."

So I said, "Well, I've got to try and get to the bottom of this." They said, "We're probably never going to know." And I said, "Well, let me try and work on that."

And so I went through the equivalent of the State Department in the Australian government. So I went to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. And I managed to get my hands on a list of every single diplomat from every country in the world in Australia, and I went to the US section.

I was able to narrow it down to the U.S. Consulate. And I knew from a letter that we also have published in Green Card Warrior, the letter that informed me that my application was sent back, that the person who signed it was a vice consul. And I knew that I had seen this individual. Because he'd interviewed me. So I knew that I could match up the face with the name, but there were eight vice consuls.

So I went through social media. And I made sure that I found everything out. And I was able to capture everything on this individual's social media account. And it became very clear to me that public statements that I've made over the years concerning feminism only producing angry women and feminine men and my arguments in support of traditional family values and my love of America were the reasons why I was vilified. They wanted to vilify an enemy of the left.

GLENN: Unbelievable.

Okay. The name of the book is Green Card Warrior: My Quest for Legal Immigration in an Illegals' System. Nick Adams is the author.

So you moved here to Texas. This part -- when I got to this part in the book, my eyes started to bleed.

JEFFY: There's more?

GLENN: Oh, yeah. There's two parts that will make your eyes bleed.

You're moving to Texas. The senators that you reached out to. Did you get help from any Texas senators?

NICK: Well, the only senator, Glenn, that I reached out to in all of my dealings, when I came to the United States to try and do something about it -- even though I had been advised by my attorneys to not come, that I should stay in Australia. And I prayed about that with my mum and dad. And they said, "Nick, you've done nothing wrong. You need to go over there and fight." And so I tried to muster up as much political support as I could, and I end up having six US senators and more than a dozen congressmen support me.

GLENN: This is going to kill you. This is going to kill you.

NICK: The only Senate office that I rang that did not offer assistance after I spoke to them was Senator Ted Cruz's office.

GLENN: Was the only one that didn't help?

NICK: Was the only one that didn't help.

GLENN: Okay. And the one that gave you the most -- ooh, this hurts.

The one that gave you the most help?

NICK: Was Senator Lindsey Graham's office, who were absolutely amazing, and I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to.

GLENN: Oh, dear God.

STU: Stations, we're going to edit out that last two minutes.

(laughter)

GLENN: Phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal.

Nick, I'm glad you're here. And I'm glad you're around, just around the corner, staying here in Texas. Good to have you.

NICK: Oh, Glenn. Listen, I've waited all my life to be here. I can't wait to start my life properly. This is the best country in the history of the world. That's why I've come here.

I've come to make, not take. Give, not receive. I've come to try and turn this country around, not let it become the country that I left and like everywhere else in the world. This is such a special, special, special place. And I fought tooth and nail to come here. And now I'm going to clean up the left that tried to kick me out.

JEFFY: Hey, did you hear that? We cannot have somebody like that in this country.

GLENN: I know.

Green Card Warrior is the name of the book. The guy doesn't have a job. Buy his book. It's 9.90 on Amazon right now. Green Card Warrior: My Quest for Legal Immigration in an Illegals' System. Nick Adams, author of Retaking America. Green Card Warrior. Nick Adams is his name. Go buy the book right now.

Thank you so much, Nick, we'll talk again.

Featured Image: Close-up of a passport with cash, boarding pass and travel book (Credit: michaelquirk)

A Sharia enclave is quietly taking root in America. It's time to wake up.

NOVA SAFO / Staff | Getty Images

Sharia-based projects like the Meadow in Texas show how political Islam grows quietly, counting on Americans to stay silent while an incompatible legal system takes root.

Apolitical system completely incompatible with the Constitution is gaining ground in the United States, and we are pretending it is not happening.

Sharia — the legal and political framework of Islam — is being woven into developments, institutions, and neighborhoods, including a massive project in Texas. And the consequences will be enormous if we continue to look the other way.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

Before we can have an honest debate, we’d better understand what Sharia represents. Sharia is not simply a set of religious rules about prayer or diet. It is a comprehensive legal and political structure that governs marriage, finance, criminal penalties, and civic life. It is a parallel system that claims supremacy wherever it takes hold.

This is where the distinction matters. Many Muslims in America want nothing to do with Sharia governance. They came here precisely because they lived under it. But political Islam — the movement that seeks to implement Sharia as law — is not the same as personal religious belief.

It is a political ideology with global ambitions, much like communism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently warned that Islamist movements do not seek peaceful coexistence with the West. They seek dominance. History backs him up.

How Sharia arrives

Political Islam does not begin with dramatic declarations. It starts quietly, through enclaves that operate by their own rules. That is why the development once called EPIC City — now rebranded as the Meadow — is so concerning. Early plans framed it as a Muslim-only community built around a mega-mosque and governed by Sharia-compliant financing. After state investigations were conducted, the branding changed, but the underlying intent remained the same.

Developers have openly described practices designed to keep non-Muslims out, using fees and ownership structures to create de facto religious exclusivity. This is not assimilation. It is the construction of a parallel society within a constitutional republic.

The warning from those who have lived under it

Years ago, local imams in Texas told me, without hesitation, that certain Sharia punishments “just work.” They spoke about cutting off hands for theft, stoning adulterers, and maintaining separate standards of testimony for men and women. They insisted it was logical and effective while insisting they would never attempt to implement it in Texas.

But when pressed, they could not explain why a system they consider divinely mandated would suddenly stop applying once someone crossed a border.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

AASHISH KIPHAYET / Contributor | Getty Images

America is vulnerable

Europe is already showing us where this road leads. No-go zones, parallel courts, political intimidation, and clerics preaching supremacy have taken root across major cities.

America’s strength has always come from its melting pot, but assimilation requires boundaries. It requires insisting that the Constitution, not religious law, is the supreme authority on this soil.

Yet we are becoming complacent, even fearful, about saying so. We mistake silence for tolerance. We mistake avoidance for fairness. Meanwhile, political Islam views this hesitation as weakness.

Religious freedom is one of America’s greatest gifts. Muslims may worship freely here, as they should. But political Islam must not be permitted to plant a flag on American soil. The Constitution cannot coexist with a system that denies equal rights, restricts speech, subordinates women, and places clerical authority above civil law.

Wake up before it is too late

Projects like the Meadow are not isolated. They are test runs, footholds, proofs of concept. Political Islam operates with patience. It advances through demographic growth, legal ambiguity, and cultural hesitation — and it counts on Americans being too polite, too distracted, or too afraid to confront it.

We cannot afford that luxury. If we fail to defend the principles that make this country free, we will one day find ourselves asking how a parallel system gained power right in front of us. The answer will be simple: We looked away.

The time to draw boundaries and to speak honestly is now. The time to defend the Constitution as the supreme law of the land is now. Act while there is still time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Why do Americans feel so empty?

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Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The Bubba Effect erupts as America’s power brokers go rogue

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When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

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Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Grim warning: Bad-faith Israel critics duck REAL questions

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Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.