Monday, May 15, 2006

Border Patrol

The president is going to address the nation tonight to outline his proposal for deploying 5,000 National Guard troops to stop illegal immigration across the 2,000 mile border with Mexico.

Let me do the math...

Okay, that's 2.5 guardsmen per mile.

Oh, wait -- it's against the law to actually place the guardsmen on the border, so they're going to use them to do administrative duties to free up the actual border patrol. So men and women who are already burned out from doing tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq will be deployed to border towns to make Xeroxes for six months.

Is there any incentive to joining the National Guard nowadays? And surely 5,000 troops isn't enough to make a difference, so why bother? Conduct a massive effort to penalize the employers that are hiring the illegals if you're serious and this is not just an exercise in making people scared of Mexicans feel secure. But shutting down businesses and sending white collar folks to prison is not sexy.

Should be a good speech.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, if you enjoy being lied to and don't mind that the president and his handlers treating the American public like a bunch of morons.

Any poor soul who enters the National Guard is up for many years of being misused and being underappreciated. But do remember, there are many laws that this administration has skirted around, the military as a police force will probably be another one those rules that will be reinterpreted. And sadly, very few people will actually protest or be concerned about this.

Michelle Pessoa said...

I watched the speech and he actually did address the need to go after the employers. But he insisted that we have enough guardsmen to fight the "war on terror," assist in local disaster relief AND patrol the border. How?

They're going to have to dip into the Army Reserve and the regular Army to carry out all of these tasks. I'm surprised that there aren't lots of people going AWOL. Or maybe they are and that info is being downplayed.

Anonymous said...

Well, the new big to do fuss in the Army that I've been hearing is that they've been sending troops back into battle that aren't mentally fit to be there. There have been several suicides among soldiers who had been reassigned to front line active duty despite a mental health red flag.

I don't think this administration sees the soldiers as real actual people, they've become an almost disposable commodity, not someone’s child

Sorry to be so pessimistic about it all, but that's how I see it.