Some people have so totally lost touch with reality that all I can do is laugh.
Here’s the American Patrol Report writing at Right Side News about the recent El Paso conference.
Critics say the people at the conference missed the 800-lb guerilla in the room. “The Mexican drug war was triggered by the construction of the new fencing and vehicle barriers,” said Glenn Spencer of American Border Patrol, “But the people at this conference, including academics, are so delusional that they refuse to face the facts.”
Spencer said the same sort of delusion has taken over many in Washington, D.C., including DHS Secretary Napolitano.
“The American people understand that if we finish the fence we will finish the cartels,” Spencer said. “Next fall they will let politicians know of their displeasure if they don’t wake up and stop drugs at the border by completing the fence project,” he added. Spencer says putting an end to cartels will go a long way toward solving Mexico’s problems.
A fence? You’re going to stop drugs with a fence? A fence will finish the cartels?
What incredible delusion.
Assuming that you were able to completely fence the 7,477 miles of land boundaries and the 12,380 miles of coastline, and then you somehow managed to keep the drugs from going over, under, or through the fence, you’d still have to deal with the simple fact that the United States imports over 2 trillion dollars of goods each year and the cartels only need to piggyback the drug shipments in with legal shipments. If we shut those down, or even slowed the legal shipments down enough to inspect more than a tiny fraction, the economy would be damaged drastically.
A fence.
A few years back, it was Canada, with Ol’ Johnny Pee threatening to squeeze the border shut. Of course, the same dynamic applies to the north as well as the south, as few businesses want to keep having to figure in the cost of ‘brick & mortar” warehousing into the profit margins. So they only keep as much inventory on hand to meet 3 days worth of demand, then it’s time to order again. Closing the border would cause the on-hand supply to be exhausted within that limit.
I’d really like to see them try to close either border, as all those Republican businessmen in border States would be incinerating the landlines with demands to their puppets in Congress that the borders be opened immediately or they’ll go under. Then we’ll see just how much support they have for the DrugWar.
You can’t reason people out of something that they didn’t reason themselves into.
Prohibition is one powerful mind altering drug.
The person who wrote this report seriously needs a real education.
Oh man, and did you guys see that graph? Correlation = causation. In related news, more deaths means prohibition is working!
aaah… the fence…
Foolish man, he forgets where he lives. Fortunately, some of us remember.
Fences like this are not about keeping others out, they are about keeping us in. From the celebrated Land of the Free to the totally incarcerated population… and to think they fear the enemy w/o more than the one within.
… sigh…
Peter, you forgot one thing. Even if they did complete the fence we grow most of our cannabis here. drug that require labs (like meth) also easily done here. If a fence ever was completed (and some how kept people out) I can’t imagine that indoor grows of poppy plants or cocoa plants would be that hard, considering how much cannabis is grown indoors.
It is interesting to get a window on the mind of someone in the border patrol. It is a thankless job in which everyone you meet is a potential criminal you’ll have to arrest. Probably most people who join the border patrol just need a job and follow procedure, but some are true believers like Mr. Spencer.
It is like they say, if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything in the world looks like a nail. So too with the border fence. The fence most certainly did not trigger the Cartel War, and it certainly isn’t going to end it because most contraband rolls in with legal shipments.
The only thing the fence is good for is insulting and alienating Mexicans, and in truth, that is its purpose. It is a sop to satisfy the anti-immigrant crowd that we are properly mistreating the Mexicans and keeping foreigners out of our country.
I would like to point out that Republicans are not the enemy here. Republicans have their anti-immigrant factions, and so do the Democrats. Organized labor likes the fence for obvious reasons. The true enemy is social conservatism and illiberalism.
It is easy to believe that Republicans are entirely anti-immigrant, but that is not so. Their loudest and most obnoxious faction IS rabidly anti-immigrant, sure, but cooler heads usually prevail. The southern border states and the federal government really could close the border and make illegal immigrants very unwelcome in America, but it never happens. The governor of California or Texas could order the guard to the border and prevent people from crossing in, but they never do.
Why? Because we need the cheap labor. The farmers would have those governors out in a flash if they ever took concrete steps to REALLY keep out illegal immigrants. So there’s always a lot of talk to do something about illegal immigration, but never any genuine action.
And that is why the borders will never close. We need them open, and we need the trade and the labor. And the drugs will follow the legitimate traffic into the country like they always have.
If fences (and walls & razor wire & armed guards) were so effective at keeping drugs out, we would not have a problem with drugs in prisons and jails.
They know this; seems the prohibs are being disingenuous, yet again….
In many places in the United States people build a fence to keep people and animals away from their drugs.
Their called pharmacies, gardens and grows.
This comment is OT, but I’ve wanted to say this for some time.
I’d like to say how glad I am to see all the new ‘faces’ who’ve shown up here of late. It’s indicative of the impact that this site is having in reformer thinking to those ‘of the mind’ who are dropping by and adding their experiences and offering information resources. I salute you all; we’re going to win this because of people like you.
CLOSE THE BORDER! CLOSE THE BORDER! oh wait, most of it doesnt even have a physical border? ok…. BUILD A CHAIN LINK FENCE! that will outsmart them cartels and mexicans!
I really wish my thinking was simple like that. I guess its true, ignorance is bliss
I think we should encourage them to finish their fence. Perhaps send them a Home Depot gift card so they can buy some materials. People like this need to be kept busy or they’ll get into mischief. Building a 7500 mile fence should keep them busy, especially if we do regular roundups and citizen checks to make certain they’re not hiring any undocumented help.
“Well, you could be right. Get that thing erected and let’s see!”
I can’t imagine that indoor grows of poppy plants or cocoa plants would be that hard, considering how much cannabis is grown indoors.
Poppies very likely would work but coca (assume that’s what you meant) is a persnickety plant which takes years before it’s viable, and I understand it only grows above 1500 feet in elevation. Sure, it could be done, but the retail price of the end product would likely be prohibitive.
Yes, the fellow that wrote that article is a fool. He makes a faulty link of cause and effect. Miles of fence correlated with drug-related murders? What an idiot! Also, he writes that there is a “800-lb guerilla in the room.” A guerilla? Does he really mean that? The phrase is “gorilla” not “guerilla.” Besides, it’s spelled “guerrilla” anyway (as it means “little war” in Spanish).
Did’nt China try this wall thing once upon a time? I can just hear… Chinese President Hu Jintao, while visitig Mexico in 2011, “Mr. Obama, tear done this wall/fence!”. History can be ironic.I agree,once built,are they out or are we in? Prohibition, it’s for the stupid.
I’ve heard the purpose of the Great Wall in China was not to keep barbarians out–it was too long to guard and too easy to go over–but to provide an obstacle that would slow them down. Chinese armies never knew exactly where barbarians would strike, so they waited for an attack to come over the wall, then chased the barbarians inside of China.
Because the barbarians ran the risk of being caught between the Chinese army and the wall on the way out, so the wall had a deterrent effect on barbarian raids. Hard to get your plunder and escape with it.
OUR wall is not nearly so clever. It is much easier to go over or through our wall than the Chinese wall, but our wall doesn’t have the deterrent effect of the Chinese wall.
People like this need to be kept busy or they’ll get into mischief.
That’s funny. According to Chalmers Johnson, that’s what the COs say about the troops, and it also happens to be what the corporate ruling-class and government say about the majority of the working-class.
While I consider it a simplistic excuse for wealthy people to practice their control-freak skills over the working-class poor, in this case, I might tend to agree, if it wasn’t an absolutely absurd waste of time and resources.
When they figure out how to keep drugs out of prisons..then maybe ..they can keep it out of a huge country like the USA. Problem with that is, we would all be living in a huge prison then.
The monumental failure of Nixon’s Operation Intercept in 1969 should be enough to silence the Glenn Spencers of the world who claim physical barriers will stop drugs at borders.
Spencer may have been influenced by Rep. Mark Souder of Indiana, a person who lives in an infinitely smaller world than Indiana, and who also believes the Great Mexican-American Border Fence is the end-all to Mexican narco-trafficking. He is wrong. Human ingenuity—a concept alien to Souder—will prevail.
After China built the Great Wall a farmer made a Flying Machine, a large kite made of paper and bamboo. Flew over the wall. The Emperor cut off his head. All the work and time and lives to build a wall that was breached by a farmer. Now we’re building a wall. Go fly a kite!
The term the people in Mexico use for the Wall is “Muro de la Vergüenza” or “Wall of Shame.” Personally, I can’t bring myself to live inside a walled country. Smacks too much of East Germany to me.