“Did anybody really think they were being put there to start just machine-gunning women and children running across the border? Setting claymores?”
There are quite a few other things, like simply being there with arms, to discourage illegal crossings.
Nobody is suggesting your ridiculous scenario. Our troops have more sense than you give them credit for.
The troops have more sense indeed, than anyone who thinks you can just stand there with guns, and illegal crossings will stop. Everybody knows we’re not going to be shooting unarmed civilians at the border.