Why, 10,000-plus miles of border of course! Hey, the Maginot Line worked so well for France, didn't it?
(sarcasm off)
Roger that. If you include the various miles of ocean border, then the U.S. has something around 22,000 miles of border.
This is only a couple thousand miles short of the equator. Might as well demand that we "seal" the equator.
Yes, of course we shoud devote more resources to border patrol and protection. I'm all for it. But we should not delude ourselves into thinking that this gives us any sort of protection.
Unfair comparison - France's wall was built to stop an invading army, tanks and all. Building a wall to stop unarmed individuals from entering the U.S. shouldn't be such a difficult task, especially with modern surveillance equipment. Some Islamic feculence will always get in I suppose, but others will be caught. We look for disruption and deterrent of the enemy, not perfection, which doesn't exist.
The Maginot Line would work great against small bands or even massed infantry divisions and armor. Maginot expected it to provide an economy of force defense while French mobile forces pivoted on it. The mobile forces were poorly deployed and the German plan was brilliant and daring.
The border can be secured but not with three thousand border patrol agents. It will not take a Maginot Line. The Southern border is less than three thousand miles and even taken with the Canadian border where in Hades did you come up with ten thousand miles? Including all the coasts are you?
Taking the southern border as the 1st priority, it could be quite secure with less than one percent of the defense budget.
Neither Bush nor Kerry are serious about the border. Kerry is worse, so, therefore, Bush is better. However, this threat is real and Bush will be held accountable if something happens. What will it feel like if such an attack happens. How will you respond when Tom Ridge gets on TV and tells us in his syrupy wat that the best way to fight the terrorists is to "go on with our lives?" That is, we should keep buying things so that our economic numbers will look good for Jeb's 2008 bid. .
This is a real threat. We need to stop drinking the kool aid and demand that the borders be sealed to the best of our ability, that the war be prosecuted vigorously in Iraq. Ask many of those deployed my friend and they will tell you the same thing.
Why can't we act before something terrible happens? Don't get me wrong, Bush is a thousand times better than that idiot Kerry, but Bush has a LONG way to go yet and, I am afraid, will not do anything about the border until it is too late. On another note, don't put it past Hitlery to call for this in 2008. She will win with this issue and the American public will swallow Gay Marriage, National Health Care, higher taxes on the "rich" in exchange for closing the border. Do you think the Clintons will not see this? They are not stupid. .