Mexicans, Legal & Illegal, Transform USA

Neither the Maginot Line or the Great Wall of China could go coast-to-coast. Our wall would.

Actually, the Maginot Line could have gone coast-to-coast. There's a reason it didn't: M-O-N-E-Y. The same problem with this idea, BTW.

You think drug dealers would be enterprising, if they fooled with landmines or our soldiers. I believe they'd just be dead.

One more time, for possible penetration into your brain: American landmines are easy to disarm, because we don't use antitampering devices that other countries do. (We seem to value the lives of our combat engineers for some odd reason.) And the various field manuals that tell you place, arm, disarm, and remove those mines are available from the Government Printing Office.

Oh, that's right! I keep forgetting that illegal aliens and terrorists are too stupid to read US Army field manuals, especially the ones laid out as comic books for the benefit of those who can't read.

People as arrogant and foolish as you deserve to get run out of your little fantasy worlds by those illegal aliens who couldn't possibly get into the US.

A force of 5 soldiers per mile, guarding the 30-foot-tall wall, isn't supposed to be impressive, just sufficient to do the job.

I hate to tell you this: it isn't enough to do the job.

I can just imagine 3 million illegal aliens coming ashore on surfboards and little boats each year. What a riot. I can't wait to buy one for myself at the Coast Guard auction.

And that explains the vast numbers of seized boats the Coast Guard has relative to the number of smugglers out there. Oh, waitaminute...they don't have those vast numbers of seized boats. Most of the smugglers never even see a Coast Guard aircraft or ship during their career unless they send a distress call.

The illegal aliens we already have are leeching more than $70 billion dollars a year in social services, alone. There's plenty of money to build the wall and put as many soldiers on it as we need.

Confiscated smuggler's boats are auctioned off all the time. What are you talking about?

Anybody trying to steal any mines will wind up dead. Like they'll just be out there where anyone can just stroll up and pick them up. You're being ridiculous.

The illegal aliens we already have are leeching more than $70 billion dollars a year in social services, alone. There's plenty of money to build the wall and put as many soldiers on it as we need.

And you're going to magically dig up the $70 billion without a peep of protest from the Democrats, or the states that receive that money.

Confiscated smuggler's boats are auctioned off all the time. What are you talking about?

Yup, they're auctioned all the time. But those boats are a tiny fraction of the total number used in smuggling. The Coast Guard thinks that they stop as many as one in ten--and that includes the ones who get into trouble and send a distress call, and those are a sizable minority of their total seizure count. And more vessels engaged in the smuggling trade would get more drugs AND illegals through Coast Guard patrols.

Anybody trying to steal any mines will wind up dead.

Please explain why they would end up dead. Like I said, we seem to value the lives of our combat engineers, so US mines don't have the array of antitampering devices that other countries (like China) use--and the instructions for handling, placing, arming, disarming, and removing those mines are readily available from Uncle.

Like they'll just be out there where anyone can just stroll up and pick them up.

That's how landmines are used. They're buried in the ground (and not very deeply) and just left there.

Mr. Charles had a habit of stealing US landmines in Vietnam. He was quite successful at it, too. Heck, he stole them from US firebase defense perimeters. I don't think you can put enough firebases on the US-Mexican border to ensure that every mine is within small arms range, unless you want to go back to the idea of having a few hundred thousand troops on post at any one moment.

Here's how you redirect a portion of the $70 billion the illegals are leeching from the U.S. towards 'the wall'.

Enforce the laws we have on the books against employing illegals.

Kick illegal aliens off the welfare and other social services rolls.

Give all illegal aliens 90 days to sell everything, they don't want to take with them, and return to their home countries. Confiscate every last nickel from any illegal alien apprehended in the country after that.

Once they're on the other side of the wall and there's no jobs or social welfare programs for them here, they'll stay out.

Yes, we'll still need the wall to prevent the trade in human slaves, stolen cars, drugs and terrorist and Mexican military border incursions, etc..

As far as the mines go, the technology is now available to make landmines do whatever we want them to do. The mines we use now could take advantage of the new technology that we've developed since the Vietnam War, 30-years-ago.

Those that were against 'Operation Desert Storm' used all kinds of Vietnam 'war stories' and flawed analogies that didn't apply anymore.

Your Vietnam landmine analogies aren't valid anymore, either.

Here's how you redirect a portion of the $70 billion the illegals are leeching from the U.S. towards 'the wall'.

OK, and I'll be happy to tell you why it won't work.

Enforce the laws we have on the books against employing illegals.

And replicate the enormously successful war on drugs.

Kick illegal aliens off the welfare and other social services rolls.

First, you have to show that they're illegal aliens. Good luck. Half of the problem is that we don't know who is and isn't a legal aid recipient, because our documentation requirements are a bad joke.

Give all illegal aliens 90 days to sell everything, they don't want to take with them, and return to their home countries. Confiscate every last nickel from any illegal alien apprehended in the country after that.

Ah, replicate another enormously successful war on drugs strategy.

Once they're on the other side of the wall and there's no jobs or social welfare programs for them here, they'll stay out.

And come the jubilee, all God's chillun will have shoes.

In other words, all you are assuming is that several miracles occur in quick succession, that Joe Citizen will gladly embrace even more government surveillance of his day-to-day economic activities, and that your proposals will survive judicial review (they probably won't).

Yes, we'll still need the wall to prevent the trade in human slaves, stolen cars, drugs and terrorist and Mexican military border incursions, etc..

I wasn't aware that stolen cars crossed into Mexico at other than border checkpoints.

As far as the mines go, the technology is now available to make landmines do whatever we want them to do.

Be specific. What capabilities do you imagine these landmines having? How much will they cost?

The mines we use now could take advantage of the new technology that we've developed since the Vietnam War, 30-years-ago.

The land mines we use now are the same land mines we used in Vietnam. Building a new generation of landmines will take about 20 years from initial concept to full operational capability, if recent defense acquisition trends continue. Since the US military's ground warfare doctrine emphasizes offensive operations as the best defense, mines are just about dead LAST in priority.

Those that were against 'Operation Desert Storm' used all kinds of Vietnam 'war stories' and flawed analogies that didn't apply anymore.

Those who favor simple solutions to complex problems use all kinds of flawed analogies. Yours is one of them.

Your Vietnam landmine analogies aren't valid anymore, either.

Be specific. What amazing capabilities do you envision modern landmines having? How would they have these capabilities? What's the price tag? What kinds of operational issues appear?

Land mines are effective because they are inexpensive. They are inexpensive because they are simple. Adding complexity to land mines increases their per-unit cost enormously.

Landmines aren't effective, because they're simple and cheap. They're effective, because they blow up people that shouldn't be where we don't want them.

They used to believe bombs were more effective, if they were cheap. Look at our smart bombs, now.

We've never been allowed to fight a 'war on drugs'. We've only ever been allowed to fight a 'Vietnam style', 'police action on drugs'.

Who ever heard of letting 100s of tons of illegal recreational narcotics over the borders and then distributed all over the country and only then trying to chase it all down? That's not a war, that's lunacy. The wall will dramatically reduce the amount of illegal recreational narcotics entering our country.

If we don't have good co-ordination of information between agencies and thus find it hard to catch illegals using phoney IDs, we fix it. It's already beginning to happen. They're arresting people that have been using stolen ID's.

Get rid of the Illegal Aliens that have been sending $9 billion dollars home, to Mexico, every year and that money stays home here to support our economy.

Landmines aren't effective, because they're simple and cheap. They're effective, because they blow up people that shouldn't be where we don't want them.

Uh-huh. And one that costs $10 to do that is 100 times as effective as one that costs $1,000.

Smart bombs are effective because their cost is low relative to the value of the targets they destroy.

One more time: what features do you expect to see on landmines to make them 100 times as effective in return for a 100-fold increase in price?

Whatever is the best, least easy to steal and most serviceable to our troops. Are there $1000 landmines out there? How about a mercury switch in there or trembler to make them hard to remove?

Let's build the wall and put the troops on it first, maybe we won't even need landmines. It might be overkill.

Whatever is the best, least easy to steal and most serviceable to our troops.

Details, son. I want to know the details of your proposal.

Are there $1000 landmines out there?

If you make a fancy enough mine, yes, the pricetag can hit $1,000.

How about a mercury switch in there or trembler to make them hard to remove?

As I said...we seem to value the lives of our combat engineers for some unknown reason. For that reason, we don't USE mercury switches and trembler devices. we leave that stuff to the Chicoms, who don't CARE if they lose a few thousand sappers during annual maneuvers.

Please explain the magical technology that will keep the mine safe when US troops are working on it, but will detonate it when a bad guy tries to disarm the thing.

Let's build the wall and put the troops on it first, maybe we won't even need landmines. It might be overkill.

Without some sort of lethal deterrent, you will be amazed at how easily people can get over the wall, particularly when you're nice enough to only have a few soldiers per mile of border.

BTW, I believe your idea for 70,000 soldiers doesn't include their support train. Care to guess how big the total force package gets?