6000 troops are going to be sent to police the border? That is an asinine waste of money, material and manpower. Aren't these guys needed in Iraq and to protect the actual homeland and not waste their time policing a 2000 mile stretch of open ground:
The Guard troops would mostly serve two-week stints before rotating out of the assignment, so keeping the force level at 6,000 over the course of a year could require up to 156,000 troops.
Still, Bush insisted, "The United States is not going to militarize the southern border."
The White House wouldn't say how much the deployments would cost, but said the troops would paid for as part of $1.9 billion being requested from Congress to supplement border enforcement this year.
That is a billion dollars that won't be used for tax cuts or for some other purpose. This is just a throwaway to the Conservative Base that doesn't believe that a Mexican who wants to come here so bad he risks death, won't either become a good American, or produce offspring that will become good Americans.
1 comment:
By "arming" our border--since militarizing seems to be a dirty word in the Bush WH...we send a signal that we will no longer catch and release illegal aliens...and I am in favor of that limited portion of the mission statement. There are too many gang and other crime-driven activities in southern border states that we pay for at the state-service or federal level; that are propelled by illegal activity. I do not buy the figures that they reflect 4.9% of our work force...even if we count domestic help, I am sure the number is far less than that. I do agree that the troop rotation and cost factors are a bit short sighted, but he DID have to do SOMETHING and he chose this. Since he can no longer govern well, this shouldn't be a genuine surprise to even the most ardent member of the GOP base...
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