Protect our citizens.

A little geography lesson this morning shows that the Mexico-US border is 1,969 miles long and runs from San Diego, CA in the west to Brownsville, Texas in the east. Each year we are blessed with about 750,000 illegal immigrants crossing this lengthy border and most recently have had one of our citizen ranchers murdered by an unknown individual suspected of traveling back into Mexico after committing the crime. Politicians pop out of the woodwork like flies to crap and call for action while in reality they are doing nothing more than pandering for votes. Think about it for a moment. Do you really think that they are interested in anything other than seizing the moment for a little limelight? Think hard now, don’t just casually reflect on my rants and musings. We are the greatest power on earth, yet our elected officials fail to do one of the very things that the Constitution empowers them to do for and on our behalf; “provide for the common defense”. Is there any confusion as to what “provide for the common defense” actually entails? I think not.

My take on the solution is quite simple. We are currently spending, depending on who or what you listen to, about $150 billion a year on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Some say the total cost will approximate $1-2 trillion, but those are just estimates. But on with my solution. The most recent data show that there are approximately 100,000 servicemen/women stationed in Iraq and rising to about the same in Afghanistan, along with maybe 40-50,000 civilian contractors(soldiers of fortune might be a better description for these). That my friends is a lot of money and a lot of people. Statistics show that there are approximately 31 million people residing in Iraq and approximately 28 million in Afghanistan. My study shows that there are approximately 309 million residing in the USA which means that we have more than 5 times the population of Iraq and Afghanistan combined. So if we apply simple math it would suggest that “the government of the people, by the people and for the people” should send 5 times more troops and spend 5 times more money on defending it’s citizens from illegal border crossings than it does in defending us from the perils within Iraq and Afghanistan. But obviously that is frivolous and I will be the first to confess to that. But what I will argue for is the need to send full combat troops to our borders and do so in sufficient strength to stop the inflow of illegal immigrants along with the criminal elements.

Yes, I know what you are thinking. We have done this in the past and it does not appear to have been a deterrent. Yes, we all know that the troops abandoned there post and retreated when they were confronted by armed banditos. But “no mas”, as so aptly put by Roberto Duran. Sending real troops, with real objectives will put an end to this once and for all. Just give us 10% of those troops in Iraq and Afghanistan along with the support contractors and the current Border Patrol contingency and we can monitor the border the way it should be done. Border protection should be a commitment by our government and it should be done before we start another amnesty program. On the home front we need to have meaningful legislation that hold employers accountable for hiring illegal immigrants and an ability to stop frivolous law suits to prevent enforcement. We can’t have our cake and eat it unless we are prepared to walk the talk. One could literally write books on this subject, both pro and con, but I will leave that to others as I am just here today to point out the problem and provide simple insight for a solution.

I see that the national news continues to follow the murder of Arizona border rancher Robert Krentz, and this in itself shows support for a renewed enforcement policy. Usually we see these things die down quickly and the politically motivated news agencies drop off their coverage. However we are fortunate that this is an election year and the politicians are grabbing for every straw that they can get their hands on. It also offers the incumbents an opportunity to turn the voters attention away from the newly passed healthcare bill while affording the wannabes a chance for headlines. And yes, I will support the candidate that stands up for our rights, be they politically correct or not.