Posted on 04/14/2005 8:42:25 AM PDT by churchillbuff
What would you call it if a neighboring country used its military forces to escort illegal border crossers, including drug-runners, to border areas known to be less secure?
I'd call it an act of war.
And that's what the Mexican government stands accused of doing this week – not just by the Minuteman Project President Bush derides as a "vigilante" movement, but by Border Patrol officers and elected U.S. officials.
President Bush still has a little time to save face – though it is slipping away quickly.
He can change directions, admit that the Mexican border poses the No. 1 national security threat to the United States and take definitive action to secure it, or he can face the almost certain risk of a major terrorist attack on this country with the border providing the entry point.
There are simply no other choices for Bush.
The "cheap labor" argument no longer holds water – not when we are squandering billions on ineffectual homeland security provisions that are rendered meaningless by the openness of the border.
Members of the president's own party in Congress are the whistleblowers on this latest outrage. He can't blame partisan politics. The president's support on every other issue of importance to his administration depends on a quick reversal of his misguided border policies.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, had some harsh but appropriate words for Bush's blindness to the border threat:
The president of Mexico is threatening to sue any member of the Minuteman who have contact with a Mexican national, threatening to take the U.S. into the International Court of Justice at the Hague over the passage of Prop 200 in Arizona, and is providing transportation to Mexican nationals trying to sneak into the U.S. ... One could say he is acting in the best interest of his nation. Isn't it unfortunate we cannot say the same thing about President Bush?
Border Patrol sources say the Mexican army recently moved about 1,000 troops to the Agua Prieta region, just south of where the Minutemen are. These troops, the sources say, are diverting all of the illegal alien and drug-smuggling traffic away from the Minutemen.
Only dramatic action by Bush can save his presidency from disgrace.
He needs to place troops on the border to supplement Border Patrol agents. He needs to support congressional efforts to hire 10,000 more Border Patrol agents over the next five years. And he needs to work with Congress on a bill to seal the entire Mexican border with a security fence.
Those should be the minimal conditions Congress requires even for discussion of the president's misguided call for a "guest-worker" amnesty program.
Even if the nation were not facing an imminent threat from cross-border terrorism, this would be the only responsible course of action. But today, after what Americans witnessed Sept. 11, 2001, we all recognize the next attack could be far worse.
It's time for Bush to admit he was wrong – that he made a mistake, that he miscalculated the threat the open border represents.
Yes, he will open himself to criticism by those who will never support him. But he can still win back the tens of millions of responsible Americans who only want what is best for this country.
Time is running out for the Bush administration and the future of his party.
If Republicans don't provide Americans with an alternative and responsible immigration and border policy, the party will go the way of the Whigs and the Bull Moose Party.
The clock is ticking and the bomb that will doom the Republicans and destroy the Bush legacy and kill untold numbers of Americans could go off at any moment.
The good ol' days!
I think I was born about 50 years too late, because I would love to be raising a family in the 1950's now instead of the 2000's. Divorce was a rarity, so most kids had 2 parents at home. And one of those was home when the kids came home from school and during summers. What a novel concept! Less problems with drugs, gangs, teen sex, and public schools weren't totally controlled by the liberals...I"m feeling really nostalgic now!
Anytime a government uses military force to ensure the crossing of a border by their people it is called an INVASION.
Of course, to Bush, it is nothing more than Mexico supporting his own open borders policy.
"Just make it virtually imposable for illegals to survive here."
I have preached that for years, BUT, things have changed a bit. Drug runners are crossing at an alarming rate. We need to seal that border to stop the drug flow.
"I know where I stand on my conservatives and Republican values and I do not get obsessed with illegal immigration because there are many other important issues as well. Like fixing social security according the President plan, winning the war on terror, changing the political landscape in the Middle to move toward some kind of freedom and democracy, appointing conservatives judges to the Federal bench, make tax cut permanent, drilling oil in ANWR, fighting social liberalism, fighting socialist/communist liberals.
"
Nice issues to be concerned about, but if this country doesn't survive the ongoing invasion by Mexico, those issues amount to nothing but rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
From your link; trajedy and comedy:
PRIME MINISTER MARTIN:
>>And standing on the shoulders of the Smart Borders Initiative, we are making new investments in security and in defense spending. Quite simply, Canada is a full and forceful partner in building a secure North America.<<
" One problem is going to be between the "Spanish" people and the illegals."
Having first generation Americans as best friends, they see the illegal issue as a bad situation. Having immigrated from Mexico legally, they love America and came here not for a paycheck but a way of life. They see the illegals usually as people looking for a paycheck and they take offense to that.
"There has to be something that Bush won't tolerate."
In the next four years, probably not.
>>There has to be something that Bush won't tolerate.<<
It doesn't have anything to do with the borders of Canada or Mexico.
This is false. Flat out false. It should not even me used as a shock headline. It's intellectually offending to me.
Mexico is not an aggressor nation of the United States of America today, and we should do all we can to insure that peace.
That said, I support the MM Project and respect and honor their right to demonstrate.
For those who propose this country deploy hundreds of thousands of troops across our southern border, which is what this 'seal the border' BS really means, need I remind you that troop movements of this scale is exactly what a country does before it invades, and it's wrong.
Extreme sarcasm.
Throwing back to you that sarcasm, those other issues you mentioned are not much to be concerned about if the Mexican invasion isn't.
Perhaps you just spout those issues as known issues for conservatives while attempting to distract us from the most urgent of issue and that is closing the border and deporting the illegals.
You must be a troll and distruptor if you think Pat Buchanan was about nothing but "killing all those illegal immigrants".
"Mexico is not an aggressor nation of the United States of America today, and we should do all we can to insure that peace."
So, what do you call it when a foreign government supports and aids the crossing of her people into another country?
Sure sounds like the definition of an "invasion" to me.
"We work as Republicans to defeat the Democrats."
Sure, we do, but the representatives we seem to be electing don't.
"The heart of the US Constitution is freedom, equality, and the pursuit of happiness. We have this now more than ever."
Then go try to say a prayer in a school.
Extreme sarcasm, again.
The bastions of liberalism are falling one after one and one day we will pray again in schools and public squares. Make no doubt about it.
It just wasn't the 50s. The golden era of America started in the mid 40s and continued through to the late 70s.
Want to talk about standard of living do you? During this golden era of America, the typical dad could feed/raise/clothe much Larger familes of 3-8, afford a home, afford at least 1 car, educate the kids, cover the family's medical expenses, and still had enough money left over to sock away in savings, take vacations, all without needing the wife to work. Yes, mothers actually could afford to stay at home and raise the kids...Properly. And oh did I mention that none of this required going into debt?
I know. This is the way it was when I was growing up and our middle class family was the norm. Try doing that today on a salary less than 150K.
You can talk about all the electronic gadgetry that was not in existence then but on the basics and quality of life, the standard of living in America’s Golden Era was much higher than today.
Government was a lot smaller too. Illegal immigration was not even a mild problem. And America didn’t have One Way Industry Exporting trade agreements with the rest of the World.
heh heh, not anymore. There are a lot of things to like and dislike in the recently passed bankruptcy reform bill, however when many Americans find out that creditors have substantially more latitude on repossessions and debt repayments, maybe more people will wake up to just how poor many of them are. With the bankruptcy jig up, maybe they will start scrutinizing the generous salaries and benefits our elected officials have voted for themselves and their bureaucratic brethren and return the favor. Maybe......
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