Military on the Border?

[Iron_Ranger]

My family and I were having a discuison on this earlier, so I thought I would bring it here to have a broader sence of opinion.

What do you think of having Military on the US southern border?

I am speaking from first hand experince here (I live in Central Texas), and I must say its getting pretty ridiculos. If you were to drive from central texas, through South Texas, and into Mexico, if not for road signs you probably wouldn't be able to tell the diffrence. And as you cant really 'force' someone to go through it all legaly, I think I am in favor of it. The only problem, I can see anyway, is the coast. How much would it take to station military personel there.

And I have to ask, what is it with these folks that they dont learn english? Its getting annoying. We have had this debate before, but all the other waves of immigration didnt have a much problem with accepting english as the primary language, so whats the deal here? You want to speak spannish, go ahead, but I dont see why you have to pour it out into the public.

I will give an example. My great grand parents (or maybe great great, not sure) came over from Germany. They lived simple, farming lifes as did the majority of the germans (at the time, late 1800's) did. But once they started going going to schools and getting jobs that involved being in the public eye, they learned English.

Not to mention the drugs that traffic through.

I will speak from another first hand experince.

A few years ago we had some neighbours that, it was never confirmed, but it was the popular opinon that they immigrated illegaly, the dad worked at some sort of factory, some kind of quarrying job if I remember correctly. It didnt pay all that great and they lived in a tiny house. However, they had about 4 Lexus'.

Pretty often they would drive to theyre mail box from about 15 seconds (way after the mail had already come that day) and drive away. About 15 minitues later, a diffrent car would drive up to the mailbox, and drive to the house for just a few seconds.

Draw your own conclusions.

Of course we could always legalize drugs, that would fix part of the problem [img]tongue.gif[/img] .

It doest even have to be military neccsarily. Police, Texas Rangers, whatever. But something needs to be done. And I hear Texas isnt even the worst part, they say Arizona and S. California is worse.

And why focus all on the Southern border. Alot of drugs traffic through Canada as well. Maybe even more. And probably heavier drugs. Not to mention the threat of a terrorist attack coming through the Canadain border, as demonstraited in 2000.

So whats your opinion on it? I am still sort of undecided, becuase of couse, where you put military, some accdenintal causualtys will happen. But from what I have learned so far, I think we would benifit more then not benifit from it.

[Stormymystic]

I too am undecided, there are pros, better protection for the next generation, lower chance of Illeagaly transporting drugs/ Immagrantsto the US, but also the cons, are we would become a military controlled nation, and for that reason alone I could not do it

[Iron_Ranger]

Originally posted by Stormymystic: I too am undecided, there are pros, better protection for the next generation, lower chance of Illeagaly transporting drugs/ Immagrantsto the US, but also the cons, are we would become a military controlled nation, and for that reason alone I could not do it

Well, would we really become a ilitary controlled nation? There is already some military on the border, 1k + I think (or atleast there was not too long ago), but apparently its not working too well. I dont think 1K will get the job done anyway, its a pretty large border, west Texas is pretty huge and barren. Plus the other 3 states it hits, mostly being desert.

Got to say, that My opinion is that using the Military (US Navy, Army, Airforce or Marines) for boarder patrol is just wrong. It completely ignores the function of those services. A miltary force is ment to kill people and destroy things. They are NOT police officers, or traffic cops or food distribution specialists. Anytime you use the military for roles it is not suited to fulfill you risk major disaster, see "Black Hawk Down" and other incidents in Somalia. We have a service that is supposed to protect our boarder (The US Boarder Patrol)...if you want them to do that job...make it their mandate and then fund them asppropriately.

Well thats just my opinion [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 05-14-2003, 09:23 AM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

[Rokenn]

IIRC a few years back they tried this and some non-immigrants ended up getting killed near San Diego. A couple of guys were out with guns doing some hunting or target shooting (I don't remember which) and the patrol shot and killed them.

[Iron_Ranger]

Well like I said...It doesnt have to be marines with huge tanks and M-16 with Stealth Bombers flying over. If its the border patrols job, they need to do a better job.

And also like I said, the secuirty there is next to non excistant.

Hey MagiK, about your military policing statment. What about the National Gaurd? The name its self implys that its to gaurd. So what about that branch doing a policing job?

[spydar]

I must say that this original post kinda irritated me. Perhaps it's that I come from Canada so we think in more of a cultural mosaic kind of way rather than a melting pot so when someone speaks another language than us it's seen as part of our cultural diversity and we protect it. And I could say a whole hell of a lot about the supposed threat Canada poses to the states but I'd rather not piss people off.

Ok, I could see the Guard doing ti..but would prefer that the Boarder Patrol just do their &*^% jobs. Oh and get the funding they need to do it...

Originally posted by spydar: I must say that this original post kinda irritated me. Perhaps it's that I come from Canada so we think in more of a cultural mosaic kind of way rather than a melting pot so when someone speaks another language than us it's seen as part of our cultural diversity and we protect it. And I could say a whole hell of a lot about the supposed threat Canada poses to the states but I'd rather not piss people off.

err Canada poses threat?? or do you mean the Canadian Immigration policies? As long as Canada is an easy route to the USA..those policies will be a subject of debate....just a fact of life Im afraid.

[ 05-14-2003, 02:18 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

[Djinn Raffo]

Originally posted by spydar: I must say that this original post kinda irritated me. Perhaps it's that I come from Canada so we think in more of a cultural mosaic kind of way rather than a melting pot so when someone speaks another language than us it's seen as part of our cultural diversity and we protect it. And I could say a whole hell of a lot about the supposed threat Canada poses to the states but I'd rather not piss people off.

The language thing irritated me because THE UNITED STATES HAS NO OFFICIAL LANGUAGE! Speak whatever you want to speak.