Posted on 02/25/2003 7:32:04 AM PST by FITZ
The March issue of Soldier of Fortune magazine features a story titled "America's Border War." The teaser on the cover calls it "War on U.S. Southern Border," beneath the one for how Marines and Army soldiers are preparing for urban combat in Baghdad.
At the end of the four-page article, the publication indicates that there will be more next month, including magazine staff taking part "in the armed patrolling of our southern border by concerned citizens" and how a Soldier of Fortune "advertiser-equipped tactical team" interdicted drug-traffickers.
The story features photographs of Mexican army soldiers, and asserts that the Mexican army has crossed the U.S. border illegally with increasing frequency. It includes a sidebar on Ranch Rescue, based in Abilene, Texas, described as a "grass-roots volunteer network dedicated to protecting and defending property rights." Critics of such movements call it a vigilante group.
The story raises concerns about border incursions by Mexican military and police officers that have resulted in unpleasant and sometimes violent encounters with U.S. border officials.
Soldiers vs. terrorists
Mexican President Vicente Fox recently announced that he plans to send more troops to the border as part of his country's effort to combat terrorism and beef up the region's security.
Timothy Dunn, an expert on the militarization of the U.S. border, said it's a mistake to deploy more soldiers -- U.S. or Mexican -- to the border zone.
"It will result in the same kind of problems that I foretold would result if we placed U.S. soldiers on the border," he said. "Soldiers are not equipped to conduct civilian law-enforcement operations. Like U.S. soldiers, they are trained to eliminate hostile threats."
Dunn said he doesn't believe border area crime, including drug and immigrant smuggling, is a U.S. national security issue. He contends that the Mexican army is ill-equipped to enforce laws in these areas.
"If they want drug enforcement, they need to follow the money ... and use the intelligence they have already to get to the major players," he said.
El Paso's Border Patrol
Although Soldier of Fortune cites Border Patrol officials in other places, Paul Beeson, assistant chief patrol agent for El Paso's Border Patrol, said he had not seen the magazine article.
The last Mexican military incursion, which the magazine mentions as having occurred in El Paso, actually took place in 2000 in the vicinity of Sunland Park. Mexican soldiers fired shots at Border Patrol agents on horseback, but fortunately, no one was injured.
Beeson said that incident was an exception, because El Paso Border Patrol agents enjoy good working relations with Mexican soldiers and police officers.
Hopefully, those relations will stick once the Mexican army tanks and other reinforcements arrive any day now.
Diana Washington Valdez's column on border affairs appears each Monday. She may be reached at dvaldez@elpasotimes.com
No, I'm not a racist, just a realist living in the danger zone.
They're not trained for that. Oh heavens, don't they know they're not trained for that? They'll lose their razor's edge!
Tell them there aren't any roads.
Tell them it's all quicksand.
Tell them they'll be destroying 'Horny Toad' habitat by the gazillions of acres.
Oh, where's PITA? Has PITA heard? Those poor, poor 'Horny Toads'.
Quick, where are the force multipliers? ;^)
The Mexican military doesn't have nearly that far to fall--it's mostly fallen to begin with. And it's not as if they'll actually accomplish anything useful to Mexico.
They're not trained for that.
Depends on what "that" is.
Oh heavens, don't they know they're not trained for that? They'll lose their razor's edge!
The Mexican Army can't fight and win a war as it is. What I don't get is why people want the US Army to become as capable as the Mexican Army.
If you thought that the using the US Army as an police force in the Balkans was bad for combat readiness, what makes doing the exact same job in America not bad for combat readiness?
Tell them there aren't any roads.
The Mexican Army has a much lighter footprint, seeing as how it's almost all light infantry.
Looks to me like we're increasingly vulnerable right here at home.
well, that and:
Clara Harris calmly got into her silver sedan as David Harris walked Bridges to her vehicle, and drove her car at a high rate of speed toward them. "I banged on her trunk and said, 'Stop! Stop! You're going to hurt someone,"' Smiros testified, saying he watched helplessly as Clara Harris ran over her husband three times. Another hotel employee recalled Clara Harris apologizing to her husband and telling him how much she loved him.
That's how our wymyn fight- and she still loved him, she was just a little irritated.
Bring it on- but don't start crying if we put some female dentists, cheerleader moms, or my girlfriend (she performed Buick-Fu on a carjacker some years ago) on your butt...*grin*
Yes, but they also said that to the fool Melvin Shmedlup, who predicted monkeys would fly out of his butt, and did not mean it as a figure of speech.
Just because some people who were called fools in the past turned out to be correct, does not mean you should not be mocked when you say foolish things, or that the mockery is misplaced.
Tell ya what. When the mexican navy beats the chinese army, and ten years later beats the russians, then I'll worry.
What exactly is the scenario you envision? a sudden armored thrust to...where? And for what? As an alternative, the thought of an economic collapse in mexico, followed by human wave migration is a bit off-putting, but the Mex army wouldn't have much of a role to play in that- just stand aside and let 'em come, trusting in our good nature not to massacre them.
Frankly, I'm more concerned about the Inuit- crafty devils with their whale bone kayaks & polar bear tipped spears, paddling their way up the beach...across canada...paddling across new Mexico, and swooping down upon El Paso...they could put rollers on them there kayaks, don't you think they couldn't.
"Clue train! Allllll aboard! Clue train leaving the station!"
Here is the scenario: scores of nuclear blasts across the US followed by Chinese and special forces from other enemy countries pouring across our border to finish off what's left. It doesn't sound outlandish to me at all.
The Chinese do not intend to fight on their soil. They intend to fight on our soil. That's a no brainer for a war fighting strategy. So tell me why this is so impossible? Even the monkeys who incubate in your colon could understand this strategy.
If you want to play, you really have to do better.
First of all, since monkey are "whats," i.e. not people, it should be the monkeys which incubate in your colon."
Secondly, I was not suggesting the monkeys would gestate, undergo cleavage, epiboly, and organogenesis, and then actually hatch in my alimentary canal- merely that the would fly out before your scenario came true.
Thirldy, your use of the active form of the verb "To Incubate" conjurs an image of monkeys crawling about in my colon, caring for/protecting some eggs.
I think what you were groping for was a phrase more like ".. the monkeys which you incubate in your colon, or perhaps "the monkeys which are being incubated in your colon."
but that's beside the point. Let's look at your scenario.
Mexico is not a fiend of ours. They still want the Southwest back.
Ummm. Okay, we may disagree on how friendly/unfriendly the Mexs are, and to what degree they pine for the part of the continent with roads, Silicon Valley, Disneyland, and all those porn companies in LA. But fair enough, they don't like us, and they want it all back.
scores of nuclear blasts across the US followed by Chinese and special forces from other enemy countries pouring across our border to finish off what's left.</I
Here you lose me. "scores of nuclear weapons" from where? My butt? Mexican nuclear weapons? The butts of the Mexs? Chinese nuclear butt weapons? How much good is the land going to be to the Mexs if it's glowing in the dark? Given the thousand upon thousands of nuclear devices we own, what makes the evil Chi-Mex horde think we won't completely destroy their countries?
And you still haven't addressed the threat posed by the anthropophagous Innuit, who are poised to sweep down upon us.
Sweetie- in 1999 the mex spent $2.5 billion on their military forces- we spent ~$375 billion. I'm not sweating it.
Even the monkeys who incubate in your colon could understand this strategy
Can't speak for them, but judging from you post there's at least one butt-monkey who believes this crap.
Take your medication, call the hospital, and tell them where you've wandered off to. I'm sure they actually care about you a great deal, regardless of what the voices in your head are telling you.
Substitute North Korea for China, and although you would still sound crazy, people who aren't bored like me might take the time to discuss this with you.
You would have to be a chicom agent if you think that a chinese attack on us is delusional. They recognize as long as we exist, that their dictatorship is in danger of being destroyed. They are our mortal enemies and don't ever forget it. So why are you such an apologist for them? Be honest.
No need to write any more essays on the monkeys in your colon or have they migrated to your womb now? No need to tell me. Go play your sophmoric semantical games somewhere else. Show me some content not just some cheap rhetoric. Go sow up your anus in a metaphorical manner of course and that would render your crude ejaculation even more moot if that is metaphysically possible.
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