Gangs pose border threat

Val Verde County Sheriff D'Wayne Jernigan has dealt with smugglers and drug gangs for decades, both as sheriff and as a customs agent.

But in the last year, the risks of drug-fueled terrorism have raised the stakes to scary levels. Rifles and handguns have been replaced by rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs, and high-caliber machine guns.

"Now the bad guys have more sophisticated training and better equipment," Sheriff Jernigan said. "They're better armed and willing to shoot."

This month, Border Patrol officials reported that assaults against agents all along the border nearly doubled from the previous year.

As President Bush prepares to tour the U.S.-Mexico border this week, law enforcement officials in counties up and down Texas' 1,200-mile border with Mexico are coping with issues of national security, increased illegal immigration, and a growing fear that the drug cartels are moving upriver and just across the border from here.

Federal investigators have blamed the increasing level of violence along the border on the bloody turf battle between three violent cartels, a battle leaving 158 dead and accounting for more than 40 kidnappings in Nuevo Laredo alone.

"What we need is money to put more boots on the ground and give these guys better training and equipment," Sheriff Jernigan said.

"But this isn't just our fight. ... If border law enforcement doesn't work, than the rest of the country is going to lose."

Back in the 1870's, General Sherman travelled to Fort Richardson in North Texas to investigate the Indian problem.

Responding to a reporters question, Gen. Sherman answered, "I am here on official business. I am General William Tecumseh Sherman, the commanding General of the United States Army. I am here to inspect the frontier forts. In the past few months, both the Congress and the War Department have been bombarded with angry letters, petititions, and memorials from Texas politicians and citizens. According to these reports, Comanche and Kiowa Indians continue to raid throughout the West Texas frontier, robbing and murdering with wild graphic of the US flagabandon, despite the presence of U.S. soldiers."

Gen. Sherman made it safely to Fort Richardson, but the north Texas frontier was far from safe. A few days after Sherman passed by, a war party of Kiowa Indians attacked a wagon train on the same road. The Kiowas, led by Chiefs Sanatanta, Satanka, and Big Tree, had watched Sherman and his escort pass but chose not to attack him. Their assault on the wagon train, which resulted in the brutal death of the wagon master and six teamsters, is known as the Warren Wagon Train massacre. Sherman ordered Col. Ranald Mackenzie to puruse the Indians across the Red River and capture them on their reservation in Indian Territory. With this action, the U.S. Army changed it's attitude to frontier defense, and began an all-out assault on the raiding Indians.

Remember, history often repeats itself ...

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.