Posted on 06/07/2005 2:06:25 PM PDT by CHARLITE
When other countries feel threatened by terrorism, their leaders do the most prudent thing they can think of: They deploy military forces along their borders, to help prevent infiltration.
They figure, and rightly so, there is no force better equipped and trained to defend their sovereign territory. More so than police, federal agents, and volunteer civilians, however well-intended they may be.
That's why it wasn't surprising to me to read this past weekend that Russian defense officials -- increasingly concerned about terrorists infiltrating from neighboring Georgia, where tensions have been growing -- ordered a beefed up military presence along the common border.
"[Russian Defense Minister] Sergei Ivanov said in televised remarks that the additional motorized infantry units would be deployed alongside border guards to help seal the frontier against 'terrorists' infiltration to Russia from the territory of Georgia,'" said a report in Pravda. "Russia long has accused Georgia of failing to uproot Chechen rebels on its territory and prevent them from crossing the rugged mountainous border into Chechnya, where Russian forces are battling insurgents in a second war in a decade."
The geopolitics of Russia's war against the breakaway region of Chechnya notwithstanding, Moscow certainly does have the sovereign right to protect its borders, especially if Russian leaders believe their territory is being infiltrated by enemies of the state.
Now, warp several time zones back to our neck of the woods, where U.S. intelligence officials have also voiced repeated concerns that fanatical Islamic terrorists may be infiltrating from Mexico and Canada.
"We all know that drug dealers know, the terrorists know, that our borders are a sieve," Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., has said.
T. J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, adds, "Even if a terrorist is a one-in-a-million occurrence, with several million people coming into the country every year, very soon they reach that critical mass necessary to carry out another attack on the magnitude of September 11th. This is totally unacceptable from the standpoint of homeland security and national security. We have to gain control of our borders."
Both of these men have stumped for more Border Patrol agents, and that's fine. But the fact of the matter is, when it comes to defending our borders against a legitimate national security threat as terrorism, the U.S. military is second-to-none. It has the equipment, the manpower, the training and the logistics to support long-term border defense operations, and it has the ability to deploy within hours.
And yet, while our leaders task that military with orders to protect Afghan and Iraqi borders from terrorist infiltration, our own boundaries remain woefully under-defended by a grossly out-manned and increasingly demoralized Border Patrol. It's obscene.
"Concern is growing at the top levels of government about the U.S.-Mexican border becoming a back door for terrorists entering the United States," the Christian Science Monitor reported in March. "While Al Qaeda infiltration across the nation's southern border has been a constant concern since 9/11, U.S. officials cite recent intelligence giving the most definitive evidence yet that terrorists are planning to use it as an entry point - if they haven't already."
Orders should have been given by the commander-in-chief to the defense secretary, within an hour of learning this information, to deploy those military forces necessary to enhance national defense of our porous borders. If, God forbid, there are more terrorist attacks, no excuse will be good enough if the terrorists who launched the attacks simply walked into the country from either Mexico or Canada.
The good news is, we have a chance to get our military involved in border protection. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., has introduced H.R. 1986, a measure that would "amend Title 10, United States Code, to authorize the Secretary of Defense to assign members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, under certain circumstances and subject to certain conditions, to assist the Department of Homeland Security in the performance of border protection functions."
Right now, the lefty lawyers in various "civil rights" groups, as well as some government lawyers within the Justice Department, claim using the military would be a violation of U.S. law, which prohibits using the military as a law enforcement force (as if they aren't already doing just that in Iraq and Afghanistan). But that's a politically correct point of view; there is no arguing the fact the military, if deployed in this scenario, can and should be utilized in its traditional role of national defense.
Opposition politicians will decry this measure as authoritarianism on the part of the Bush administration. The military brass will hate it because it will put even more strain on their available forces. But the White House and Congress should resist these complaints and ask themselves if protecting Europe from no one or South Korea from a starving North is more important than preventing another 9/11.
Terrorism counts as a legitimate threat to our national security. The time has come to deploy our military in defense of our borders. If the commander-in-chief won't do it, then Goode's measure should be passed to force his hand. Every day we wait increases the risk more Americans will become victims of terrorism.
Jon E. Dougherty is author of Illegals: The Imminent Threat Posed by our Unsecured U.S.-Mexico Border, and editor of Voices Magazine [http://www.voicesmag.com]
but, but, but.... what about the price for a head of lettuce?
Isn't THAT more important?
We've all seen this agrument made 8 ways to Sunday. Other than Tancredo, nobody cares. Our only hope is the minuteman project.
Don't need the military...Get those people out of the welfare offices and stand them on the border...They'd be much more useful there...
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!
US Co-President Vicente Fox won't allow it.
ping please write ping thank you
"We've all seen this agrument made 8 ways to Sunday. Other than Tancredo, nobody cares. Our only hope is the minuteman project."
And wakeupamericafoundation.com. We need nationwide participation. We need camcorders and cameras recording lines of illegals waiting to be picked up by employers. We need the license plates of employers, business logos, etc. We need photos of kids going to school. We need photos of illegals entering the social service offices. They're putting together a compilation of data and photos to send to the Whitehouse and the Administration heads, the House and Senate as well as state wide officials and the IRS. We can then boycott businesses who hire illegals on a local level.
We're finally going after employers who hire them. Dry up the jobs and social services and they'll deport themselves.
We're going after the Politicians who support illegal immigration as well. Vote them out. It's really that simple. Just vote them out. Vote for Third Party candidates until the Republicans and Democrats get the message.
ping
ping
Someone had a great comment...if we're going to give them money anyway, why not pay folks on welfare to watch the border. Tell 'em that every invader they stop equals another coupla dollars in welfare benefits for them...since we won't have to give those dollars to illegals.
"We're going after the Politicians who support illegal immigration as well. Vote them out. It's really that simple. Just vote them out. Vote for Third Party candidates until the Republicans and Democrats get the message."
What c**p! Vote for third party? Not on your life or the life of my grandkids party trumps person ALWAYS, never vote third party.
What c**p! Vote for third party? Not on your life or the life of my grandkids party trumps person ALWAYS, never vote third party.
Then put up with Anti-American politicians and their treason.
I am with you. Voting 3rd part is great locally, but if we empower the socialists nationally, we will lose our guns and our kids to the UN.
ETERNAL WARMING is right, start voting third party and keep voting third party until every open borders pols is voted out of office. Here in Houston Dan Partick am700, as good an R as anyone is seriously considering running for lt Gov as an independant, he like the rest of us is sick of the Big spending, Open borders, ignore the people GOP. Plus the state GOP did nothing about out of control property taxes.
There's nothing wrong with having the military on our borders. A better idea would be to merge the Coast Guard and the Border Patrol into a 5th branch of defense, call it the Coast & Border Guard.
Yup, yet another mission for an Army that has too many of them already and not enough manpower to do them.
Mr. Dougherty, you mind telling me what missions we drop to put enough troops on the border to do anything effective?
I'm seriously considering voting for Constitution Party candidates in Congressional races. You should too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.