U.S.-Mexico border security is a controversial issue and I think it deserves its own thread. Suffice it to say that I think it is much more complicated than some think.
The terrorists who behead American contractors and kill American soldiers are not coming from Mexico, but from Syria and Iran. WMD may have gone to Syria and the Syrian-controlled Bekaa (this is based on public statements of US officials, not Debka). And Zarqawi is getting support from Syria just as Sadr is from Iran.
True, some of the current infiltration is coming from Mexico this time rather than Canada or ports (as it has before), but it has been other routes in the past, and the central issue is not which one of the many points they could come in, but where are they coming from (the original source).
If you don't go to the source, you will never solve the problem because they will *always* find a way in - - where there is a will, there is a way.
The incipient revolution in the news today in Iraq is being fueled by Iran and its strategic ally, Syria. That has implications not only for the entire ME, but for global peace and stability. Mexico is child's play and a sideshow compared to that.
They (Syria and Iran) also harbor and support Hezbollah and elements of al Qaeda, who are planning attacks in the US. Recall we just had to throw out (another) Iranian diplomat last month for taking pictures of potential targets in (guess where?) - - New York City.
As the President said, we are fighting them there so we are not fighting them here.
As many cells that might be here at the moment, imagine how many would be here if we were not pinning them down and killing them over there.
Yes, I know how bad it is. But despite what the "experts" say, there is no easy solution. And the Canadian border is a huge problem as well. What you do for one has to be done for the other or you just shift the problem.
Doesn't matter if we had the troops to seal off the southern border (and we don't - - we don't even have enough NG left in the US to deal with certain WMD scenarios). They would find another way in. Guaranteed. And if we "sealed" the border in the way some advocate (walls, mines, troops), Mexico would become a "pressure cooker" and destabilize. If we cut off Canada, they would find a way to survive, Mexico would be a different story.
If Mexico were to collapse, it would risk over the next decade becoming a narco-terrorist state that has left the US sphere of influence and begins to gravitate in much more dangerous orbits. A Cuba/Venezuela of 100 million sharing a 2000-mile border.
And there will still be people getting across, no matter what measure you take. People come in and out of North Korea and Iran all the time. There is no such things as an impervious border.
Not saying we should not do something. But anything (even if there was a good solution, and there is not) would take years to implement, and we don't have the luxury of time. Just saying folks need to cut the President a little slack on that issue. He knows what he is doing, and he is not an idiot.
You cannot win this on the defense. You don't draw the line in the sand here.
You draw it there.
"Defense in depth"
A cancer on civilization
Rocky Mountain News ^ | 8/6/04 | Michael Rosen
Posted on 08/06/2004 12:50:34 PM MDT by freedom44
.........
Call it what you will - radical Islam, Wahhabism, Jihadism - it's a cancer on civilization that must be forcefully removed, just as Nazism had to be eliminated in the last century.
Until we come to grips with that reality, we will not devote the will, the resources and the sacrifice necessary to win this latest world war. After 9/11, many Americans have come to understand this.
The next 9/11 might persuade some more. The French, among others, are still pathetically in denial.
Lest you think I exaggerate the threat, listen to the sentiments of Fawwaz bin Muhammad Al-Nashami, commander of the Al Quds Brigade, which took "credit" for the recent May 29 massacre in Khobar, Saudi Arabia.
Translated from Arabic by the Middle East Media Research Institute, the original interview was posted on Sawt Al-Jihad, a Web site with ties to al-Qaida.
"We tied the infidel [a Briton] by one leg [behind the car] . . .
Everyone watched the infidel being dragged . . .
The infidel's clothing was torn to shreds, and he was naked in the street.
The street was full of people, as this was during work hours,
and everyone watched the infidel being dragged, praise and gratitude be to Allah . . .
We entered one of the companies' [offices], and found there an American infidel who looked like a director of one of the companies.
I went into his office and called him.
When he turned to me, I shot him in the head, and his head exploded.
We entered another office and found one infidel from South Africa, and our brother Hussein cut his throat.
We asked Allah to accept [these acts of devotion] from us, and from him.
"We went from the company [offices] and found our brother, Nimr the hero, standing at the entrance to the company and guarding us, drinking a little water as though he were on a hike. [He acted this way] because of his great courage - may Allah have mercy on him . . .
"At the same time, we found a Swedish infidel.
Brother Nimr cut off his head, and put it at the gate so that it would be seen by all those entering and exiting.
We continued in the search for infidels, and we slit the throats of those we found among them . . .
"We found Filipino Christians.
We cut their throats and dedicated them to our brothers in the Mujahideen in the Philippines.
[Likewise], we found Hindu engineers and we cut their throats too, Allah be praised.
" That same day we purged Muhammad's land of many Christians and polytheists . . .
"Afterward, we turned to the hotel. We entered and found a restaurant where we ate breakfast and rested a while.
Then we went to the next floor, found several Hindu dogs, and cut their throats . . . brother Hussein was on the stairs and noticed an Italian infidel.
He aimed his gun at him and told him to come closer. The infidel came closer.
We saw his identifying documents . . .
afterward we would cut his throat and dedicate him to the idiotic Italian president who wants to confront the lions of Islam."
As you can see, these heroic "lions of Islam" don't just murder Americans.
They're equal-opportunity butchers of all "infidels."
In Khobar, that meant innocent, unarmed civilians whose primary sin was having a different religious belief from theirs.
If this cancer is ever to be effectively eradicated, it would best be done by civilized Muslims, their own countrymen.
One wonders if there are enough of them and if they're up to the task?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1186465/posts
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