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Home Front
Troops to guard US borders
2002-02-02
  • The U.S. military will be taking up positions alongside federal agents at the nation's borders. The announcement was made after President Bush said he wants U.S. border defenses strengthened during Tuesday's State of the Union address. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said such operations eventually will be overseen by a new military commander for operations protecting the United States. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he would present plans for the new command to Bush next week. The command would direct the nation's air, land and sea defenses against attacks on the United States from terrorists or other enemies. Rumsfeld said the military's presence would not be permanent.
    Despite what Bill O'Reilly says on FoxNews, it wouldn't make much sense to deploy infantry at the borders. It's simply not cost-effective. There are things the military has, like ground surveillance radars and infrared tracking equipment, that would be useful as an adjunct to the Border Patrol. Most countries with long, vulnerable borders like ours have border forces that are paramilitary in nature, rather than police forces as ours are. The Russians not only had (probably still have) a fully military border guard force, but laid land mines and had sniper towers. We probably don't want to go quite that far, but we do need to tighten access.
    From a Canadian - what do you think about Canada applying for statehood (perhaps 4 or 5 states)?

    Personally I would be for it - it's mostly the snobbish elite that gets nationalistic, and they're the only ones who get on TV - most of us really do love the USA and what it stands for. 99.9% of regular Canadians honestly do appreciate you.


    Posted by Jeff 2/3/2002 8:31:29 AM
    Truth to tell, the idea scares me. It's a logical idea: We're all North Americans. It'll probably come naturally in the course of the next century. But we don't all think alike. Canada's got a lot more Social Democrat strain than the US.
    Posted by Fred 2/3/2002 6:18:45 PM
    • Posted by:Fred Pruitt

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