This week the secretary of defense notified Congress that 11 “military construction” projects on the international border with Mexico are “necessary to support the use of the armed forces.” Not a single foot of “wall” is to be built with the $3.6 billion the secretary plans to divert from the Pentagon for this purpose. The 11 projects in four states are being funded in order to erect 174 miles of fencing. In fact, these are not military construction projects as the Pentagon and the Congress have historically defined them. But historic norms are falling every day. This tortured use of...