Posted on 01/16/2009 3:40:40 PM PST by SandRat
FOB DELTA — The second half of the 1st Company, 3rd Battalion, Department of Border Enforcement Region commandos graduated from a two-week training course on mounted and dismounted techniques, urban and close quarter combat, medical training and snap traffic control points at the Karmashiyah Border Fort, Jan. 13.
All the border security commandos of 1st Company have now completed the two-week training course and are ready to conduct border security operations at the Karmashiyah Border Fort, less than 2 miles from the Iraq-Iran border.
The first half of the company graduated from the same course, Dec. 29.
“Thank you to the support of training team from the U.S. forces, and the experience they provided the Iraqi Soldiers in this training,” said Iraqi Col. Mohammed Aziz Jaber, commander of 3rd Battalion, DBE Region Commandos, in his speech to the Soldiers at the graduation. “I thank the Soldiers of the 1st Company, the Soldiers and the officers, for their work and cooperation with the U.S. forces, to serve as the new Iraqi future.”
Soldiers from 2nd Platoon, Battery B, 2nd Bn., 20th Field Artillery Regiment instructed the training, which the Iraqi border security force commandos can apply when conducting their missions.
“Today we celebrate the commandos of the Department of Border Enforcement, as they complete their initial training, and prepare to assume their role on freedoms’ frontier as the lead guardians of the sovereign border of Iraq,” said Lt. Col. Timothy Bush, 2-20 FA Regt. commander.
First Lt. Layne Christopher, Platoon Leader, 2nd Plt., Btry. B, was the officer in charge of the two-week training courses.
“The next step is conducting joint operations with the commando company, and continually improving and building off the skills they learned in the course,” said Christopher, of Gerlach, Nev.
We've been told repeatedly that it's not nice to put soldiers on a border....our border.
But apparently our soldiers are so good at it that they train other soldiers in other countries how to do it.
Puzzling, to say the least.
Posse Commitatus
The Posse Commitatus Act, while advisory and customary, is not equivalent to the Constitutional guarantee of border security to the several States. Further, the protections offered by Posse Commitatus, supposedly precluding the use of military force within the US are at best, illusory. I point you to USC Title X, Section 333:
The President, by using the militia or the armed forces, or both, or by any other means, shall take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy, if it—
(1) so hinders the execution of the laws of that State, and of the United States within the State, that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law, and the constituted authorities of that State are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that protection; or
(2) opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.
In any situation covered by clause (1), the State shall be considered to have denied the equal protection of the laws secured by the Constitution.
So you see, Congress gave the President the police power with enormous latitude well over 100 years ago, Constitutional or not (IMO, not).
I agree wholeheartedly, and would wish that such power were exercised immediately and for the foreseeable future.
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