Obama makes it more difficult to fight terrorism

First, on Friday, December 23, 2016, he had the U.S. abstain on the U.N. vote condemning Israel for its settlement policy. The U.S. should have vetoed the resolution. This will embolden the Islamists against our ally, Israel. It is a clear signal that the U.S. does not stand with Israel. Our security is weakened because if Israel is attacked, we will defend Israel. Donald Trump has already announced that he will support Israel by tweeting, "[T]hings will be different after Jan. 20[.]"

Second, on Thursday, December 22, 2016, Obama's Department of Homeland Security issued a regulation to disband and eliminate a program instituted by George W. Bush in 2002 as part of the War on Terror. The program was titled the "National Security Entry Exit Registration System" (NSEERS). It required that male non-immigrants age 16 and above, from 25 countries – mostly Muslim-majority, such as Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Libya, and including North Korea – register with the Department of Homeland Security so we could track their entry and exit from our country. Obama had suspended the program in 2011, and he now abolished it. Obama justified the cancelation by saying the present program was not efficient because it required that immigration officials manually record the information and that we now record this information electronically with all who enter our country. If that reason were true, then he would have abolished the program in 2011 instead of suspending it. But as the Washington Times reports, Trump could have used this program to register non-immigrants from Muslim-majority nations. Trump now has to set up a new system and have it published in the Federal Register, which means it allows for comments and lawsuits to delay its implementation. The program was canceled to affect Trump's use of it to register those from designated countries. In addition, it is not clear if we now track the exit of those specifically from the designated countries. Most likely they may be tracked as part of all those who come here on visas. The abolished program targeted those from the countries posing a risk of terrorism to us. Assuming that Obama is correct that we have more efficient methods to collect data, and given that Obama suspended this registration program in 2011, the question is, why cancel the program during the last month of his administration? The obvious answer is, if Trump wants to reinstate it, he has to start from zero to publish the regulation, which takes time. Obama want to make it difficult for Trump to use this program. There was no valid reason to abolish the program now. It should have been left in place for the Trump administration to determine if it was obsolete or could be used as part of its program of "extreme vetting" and other issues dealing with immigrants and non-immigrants from designated countries. Obama, in his last month, abandoned Israel on a crucial U.N. vote, and we abolished a program to track those from designated countries posing a risk to us. Obama is acting recklessly in his last month, endangering U.S. security. He should be doing what he does best: playing golf and vacationing. What next?