At any given time there are hundreds of little wars and battles all over the world. You don’t hear of more than a few because of the media. Most people can only remember a few besides the big ones like Iraq and Afghanistan. Half of Africa seems to be at war of some kind. But the most curious one is right on our doorstep, our border with Mexico.
There is a real condition of war there and don’t let anybody say otherwise. Mexican army troops fill the border towns in a cat-and-mouse game with narco-terrorists and corruption. The US Department of Homeland Security has thousands of agents as well.
In addition, the US intends to build a border wall and occupy it as a demilitarized zone, like the border between North and South Korea. I guess everybody knows that but never heard it said that way. But can you imagine how people in Mexico feel, being treated like Palestinian or North Korean terrorists?
Even the phrase “de-militarized zone” has connotations of Vietnam as well. What a stupid term, DMZ, since you never have one unless you’re at war and killing people. From most accounts, we’re doing a pretty good job of killing people, although nobody is keeping a body count because it’s not a sexy war like our very generous stupidity in Iraq. If you include the hundreds of people shot by narcoticos, the wetbacks who didn’t make it past the checkpoint, the few killed by US agents, the coyote smugglers who let their people die, and all the related violence the numbers could be a thousand or more.
We the people and the Congress and states all said “yes we want border protection” and fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Now the Secretary of Homeland Security Chertoff is allowed to suspend all the laws of the land to militarize the border. It is a very sad situation with no endgame.
3 comments:
You are right, there are hundreds of people abducted, tortured and even killed on the Mexican/Us border every year. My Dad was the pioneering FBI Agent down here and I got to hear all the horror stories.
There is a problem for sure with real legitimate criminals operating between the sides and they do pose a real threat to the US. There are definitely poor Mexicans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, Russians, and every other an or can or ican coming across that border for a better life.
I have personally aided in the smuggling of a friend of mine from La Ticla, Michoacan, Mexico across the border.
I don't know if a wall or DMZ, as you put it, will ever happen as I never see a party fully funding it for political reasons.
The solution to our immigration issue is more vexing than that of Iraq in my personal opinion. It is even more closely linked to our economic and national security future than Iraq for that matter.
I do not believe that open borders is the answer or even wall is. The truth is I don't know what is and that is where I think the entire country, if truly honest with itself, is right now.
Yes,but why is it a bad fence and what should we do. Bad, bad fence seems hardly an answer. We are about the only country left in the world without some kind of real border. You have doors on your home and locks on your doors. Why are we as a county made to feel bad for simply saying, enough, you have to at least knock before you come in? Have you looked at the latest US job figures? Even if we agreed to let most people come through either border...we simply no longer have the jobs for all of them. You can not ship the 22 million illegals back, but neither can you let in 22 million more. Further stop telling me we need these people to do jobs we wont do. If we truly need them we will BEG them to come over and pay them a true living wage. I have picked strawberries. I wouldn't want to pick them for less than $10 an hour. It is back breaking work. ALL people who do such work should be in the county legally, pay full taxes, and then, if we still need people from other countries to do this work they should get the real full market value for their labor. Not one penny less...and certainly not less than minimum wage.
Also, for the record, I almost don't care about those who come to work...almost. What about the OTM, the other than mexicans, that everyone knows come through here. Perhaps we should also mention OTC as well because it happens on the north side as well. We have people from Russia, China, India, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Egypt,the Balkans, indeed every country in the world crossing over. Talk to the ranchers, talk to border patrol. They know about this. Some of these people are not here to look for jobs. Many are, but some are not. If not a fence, if not a DMZ, then what?????
RayDean
Well there was some poetic license there about the "DMZ" and I don't have all the answers never mind all the right questions.
But I do know the whole situation is fueled by two things: A hefty American appetite for illegal drugs and an addiction to cheap labor. To that extent we caused our own "war."
Curiously, the Canadian border is much longer, much more porous, and is proven to be the avenue from which real terrorists entered the US. But no border wall there!
I used to pin my hopes on high technology option, with no need for all this concrete and steel fencing. Unfortunately, those efforts are a lost cause. So I guess I don't have a "Plan B."
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