As much respect as I have for W, his willingness to allow the border to remain in a grossly unprotected state after 9-11 completely boggles the mind. So much so, that I have losed a fair amount of respect for the man and even hold him in contempt for dereliction of the duty he accepted when he placed his hand on the bible and took an OATH to PROTECT THIS COUNTRY against all enemies foreign and domestic.
"I have losed a fair amount of respect for the man "
...lost.... I think you meant to say.
First, I would like to say that you have placed yourself in a fairly large group. The group that blames President Bush for not closing the border.
The distinctions evident amongst this group are apparently not obvious to anyone in the group.
1. The President asked for increases in manpower to guard the border. Our Senate and Congress only authorized and increase of so many per month, below what he requested.
2. We have caught, and continue to catch invaders at the Canadian and Mexican borders.
3. That we know of, NONE have successfully gotten through and initiated a terrorist attack, since 9/11.
4. The borders cannot be just 'closed'. There is no magic lock. One can either try to penetrate our borders by getting through customs checkpoints with fake id's, or sneaking through an area where this is not a border patrol or customs checkpoint. The borders are not 'open', in the sense that everyone is free to pass, no questions asked.
Those that think the borders can be 'closed' with just a wish, or a word, are demonstrating thier ignorance of reality.
In other words, let's say you are the President.
Right now, today, you have decided to CLOSE the borders.
Please tell us all exactly how you will accomplish this and prevent anyone from going to or from either side.
You must accomplish this by the end of the day, and it must be 100% effective. Are you ready? Tell us all , we are listening.
Border security is the main issue right now. If Bush is unwilling to close the border, other Reps must step up and demand it. Otherwise, the Reps will lose big time in November and especially in '08 cause many disenchanted and disgruntled conservatives will simply not bother to vote. The last time that happened, we got a BJ Clinton for President. We can NOT let that happen again. Voter apathy must never again decide who is in charge of this country.