“The citizen-soldiers and -airmen will serve alongside federal agents for one year as an augmentation force. The troops will work to prevent illegal immigration and drug trafficking north of the border, as well as to counter weapons and cash smuggling going south, Alan Bersin, CBP commissioner, said today at a Pentagon news conference.”
Perhaps not too big of a deal, for now.
I would point out that there are rational safety and economic reasons that people join the drug gangs: they can have protection (for a while) and they can make money (even, and perhaps for some, especially if, it’s dirty). Greed and fear, the survival instinct, murder, cunning and the naked desire for power rule in daily operation.
What is our national interest in helping Mexico develop a better educational system…a stronger economy…a more representative government with more equality of opportunity with the resources they already have?
How should, and would we even pursue such goals (keeping in mind how our ideas motivate us by using military force and soft power in other parts of the world, by using international institutions and alone, by using direct diplomacy or not)?
We have a long, shared border, and thousands upon thousands of daily interactions near and across it. Obama’s too far left on this for me, and I don’t like the poitics of it. I have little faith in immigration reform as he’s (kind of, and for many political reasons) proposing.
Related On This Site: Repost-Immigration: Will A Wall Work? From Commonweal: Andrew Bacevich “The War We Can’t Win: Afghanistan And The Limits Of American Power” Reno Man Takes Down Mexican Flag With Army Knife
\Thank you so much for this post. Unfortunately, most Americans have no knowledge of the fact that Mexican Border security has been an issue for a century. Very few know of the Punitive Expedition, the Mexican Border Campaign, nor how they also fit into the larger scheme of the Great War. Here is a link to letters written exactly 94 years ago by a National Guardsman from Massachusetts. Too bad today’s politicians are more concerned about being politically correct than robustly defending the sovereignty of the United States.
http://worldwar1letters.wordpress.com/2008/06/29/rio-grande-el-paso-southwestern-rr-tunnel-7281916/
Soldier’s Mail. Thanks for reading and commenting.
For many reasons, I don’t think we have the will to solve this problem politically right now, and no one wants to touch it. I fall into the category of thinking that the current debate is pretty pathetic. As Americans, we all have to recognize that immigration is the life blood of the country, but that those citizens who are most affected ought to have the right to decide through state legislature how they will handle it. The DOJ may have a case, but I question any outcome.
Immigrants are people, frankly, and many come for a better life, do backbreaking work, and sacrifice greatly for the opportunities found here. I don’t like seeing them die in the desert, and how and what burdens they choose to bear are theirs to bear, but we also ask them to make sacrifices, and this too is central to the issue.
But illegals being granted amnesty again? Sanctuary cities? Rallying the democratic base and getting new voters? Way too far left for me. Beyond that, way too political and top-down.
The sacrifice that soldiers make for our country, that citizens make in their daily lives to make it better, the laws we all most follow, the friendships, commerce, and sacrifice that those who live near the border make, especially, are primary. I don’t know the best way forward, but we risk papering over some of the deeper thoughts and feelings that people have about the issue.
Thanks for the link.