FREEP this poll on Tancredo's proposal to put troops at the border

Denver Post ^ | 19 jun 02

[white trash redneck]

-Take the Denver Post's poll!  Do you think we should put troops on the
border? www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E11%257E681806,00.html?search=filter

[Atsilvquodi]

Done!

Bump - currently 73% for "Absolutely".

[Dakmar]

Should we put armed troops at the borders?

Total Votes = 1120

Absolutely. We are leaving gaps for terrorists. (817) 73%
Yes, it's probably good extra protection. (63) 6%
Maybe. Depends on where and how they're used. (54) 5%
No, Tancredo is nuts and prejudiced, period. (174) 16%
Undecided. Need more information. (9) 1%
No opinion whatsoever. (3) 0%

[Postbro1]

I'm in for absolutely!

[CyberCowboy777]

FReeped!

Bump

[Reaganwuzthebest]

If we can close everyone else's border with the military, we can close our own. I don't think the military should be arresting people, the border patrol can do that. But their presence will be a deterrent. We are being invaded after all.

[3AngelaD]

I haven't been to Colorado for several years, but isn't the Denver Post a liberal rag that regularly preaches the benefit of open borders and runs sob stories about poor illegal alien aggravated felons who are getting deported?

[white trash redneck]

isn't the Denver Post a liberal rag that regularly preaches the benefit of open borders and runs sob stories about poor illegal alien aggravated felons who are getting deported

Why, yes, that's the same Denver Post. In fact, they should adopt your phrase "a liberal rag that regularly preaches the benefit of open borders and runs sob stories about poor illegal alien aggravated felons who are getting deported" as their motto, much as the New York Times has "All the news that's fit to print."

Your motto more accurately describes the Pest (as we in Denver call it so fondly as we use it to line birdcages, wrap fish, and housebreak puppies) than the Times' motto describes its paper.

[b4its2late]

Total Votes = 1341

Conservatives - Absolutely. We are leaving gaps for terrorists. (939) 70%

Republicans - Yes, it's probably good extra protection. (68) 5%

Conservative Dems - Maybe. Depends on where and how they're used. (60) 4%

Liberals - No, Tancredo is nuts and prejudiced, period. (260) 19%

Moderates - Undecided. Need more information. (11) 1%

Hippies from the 60's (aka College Profs) - No opinion whatsoever. (3) 0%

[Denver Ditdat]

I haven't been to Colorado for several years, but isn't the Denver Post a liberal rag that regularly preaches the benefit of open borders and runs sob stories about poor illegal alien aggravated felons who are getting deported?

Yup.

[Denver Ditdat]

Your motto more accurately describes the Pest (as we in Denver call it so fondly as we use it to line birdcages, wrap fish, and housebreak puppies) than the Times' motto describes its paper.

I like to call it the Post Hole, in honor of the infamous hole in the ground that liberals can't distinguish from thier @$$e$.

[medlarebil]

http://www.house.gov/tancredo/

Above is the link to go directly to the petition.

[stanz]

Freeped and signed.

[Malcolm]

With the Mexican military suddenly making incursions on US soil, we might have to do it, not because of illegal immigration, but to defend our border. Since Mexico has been an ass to us for the last 70 or so years, I'm not sure why they are not stationed there already.....

[stanz]

Did you watch O'Reilly last night? I never remember names, but the topic of healthcare to illegals came up. I can't believe we have to foot the bill for medical care for any illegal alien who needs it. You know the old adage---prevention is worth a pound of cure. Keep 'em out and we'll have less problems. The only way to keep 'em out is to enforce the border patrol.

[Enemy Of The State]

What a farce! Obviously the poll wasnt going as they hoped so they have shut down the polling so that you cant vote. STOP MEXICO!! PUT TROOPS ON THE BORDER!

[John H K]

Hope you meant for everyone to vote against such a stupid and ill-informed proposal. The guy who proposed it admitted he didn't have the foggiest idea how many troops it would take, and I'm sure he didn't speak to anyone in the military or talk to anyone who knew anything about the military.

The military isn't designed to be border police, and using it to do so will destroy its combat capability, though I suspect people with no military knowledge may naively think it's a good way to keep troops occupied.

For one thing, for anything more than a purely symbolic presence that actually stops anything, you're talking about far more troops than I believe people realize...I suspect in the hundreds of thousands.

Using the military for anything other than combat and training for combat destroys combat capability. That's why the military despises "peace-keeping" and Bush is frantically trying to get out of peace keeping around the world. Units that take part in peace-keeping actually have their combat readiness destroyed and it takes months of retraining when they get home to get them prepared again.

Combat doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to "peace-keeping" and neither does it resemble policing the border. Time taken doing that destroys combat training time. Trying to stop assorted unarmed Mexicans crossing a border has absolutely nothing to do with learning to blow away an Iraqi Republican Guard Division, shooting up an Al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, or stopping a million North Koreans streaming over the DMZ.

The current military is VERY overstretched in terms of manpower; there aren't thousands of guys just sitting around doing nothing that you can put on the border. Also, the US military isn't organized at all for border patrol duty; other countries, like Russia, have "Border Guards" (the NKVD) that are essentially an entirely separate, self-contained military force with a different organization and TO&E.

And you can't call up several hundred thousand National Guard and put them on permanent, unending active duty to do it, either.

And once recruits find out that their most likely duty will be wandering around West Texas picking up Mexican families and sending them home, you're going to see recruitment and retention in the Army, already a problem, going in the toilet.

If you want to do it, you have two options:

1) Reinstitute the draft, and I guarantee that will NEVER happen, particularly for this purpose. Not a snowball's chance in hell, or

2) Go for a MASSIVE expansion of the current border patrol or creation of a brand new American NKVD. You're talking about billions and billions and billions of dollars here. There's no free lunch where you just grab some troops we already have and slap them on the borders.

[Revolutionary]

Obviously John H K, you are wrong on several counts. Both he and his staff talked to myself and other recent military personnel. I demostrated exactly how the National Guard could assist the Border Patrol, Customs, the INS, etc. to seal the Northern and Southern borders everywhere except normal check points and in cities.

The manpower requirements were exceptionally small and more than offset by the increased capability. The training would be excellent and directly applicable to both combat and peace enforcement operations. The National Guard would use their normal training rotations and would be augmented by contractors to provide training continuity.

Border patrol is directly applicable to force protection combat requirements. Attack operations training would be accomplished with the same personnel in designated training areas not associated with border operations.

The National Guard recruitment and retention would go up because they would be accomplishing a real world mission as part of their ongoing training. Stopping terrorists, drugs, and illegals from crossing the border is real time feedback that people crave.

It would not cost billions and billions. As a matter of fact the southern border would cost about $250M to implement and $100M a year to run. Chump change compared to the war on drugs or the war on terrorism.

And for those that manipulate the sympathies of others: This plan does not stop people from seeking a better life, it forces them to fill out the documents and enter this country legally. It is very little to ask in return for Freedom and the American way.

[B Knotts]

Rep. Tancredo was just on O'Reilly, promoting this petition.