Bob Marshall’s Reagan-esque Border Security Solution
By Greg L | 15 March 2008 | Virginia Politics, US Senate | 17 Comments
My good friend over at Spank That Donkey, who seems to at least temporarily at odds with me over who should receive the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator, has taken issue with remarks reportedly by Bob Marshall which suggested that the 35,000 soldiers now stationed in Germany could be put to a lot better use on our Southern border. Apparently without the prospect of enticing potential recruits with a possible assignment to Germany, it might be hard to fill recruiting goals for the armed forces. By far his most interesting comment is this:
Moving those assets to our own border is completely foolhardy. The Southern Border of the USA can be secured with fencing and border patrols, it’s complete overkill to place M-1 Tanks and AH-1 Attack Helicopters on our southern border just to deter illegal immigration.
Yeah, “fencing” and “border patrols” are working so well for us now. Our border patrol is under assault, and they’re catching only a fraction of those crossing the border unlawfully while operating under extremely difficult circumstances that result from Congress’ lackadaisical support for this national security priority.
This is where I really have to wonder what’s going on here. Now I know that the folks over at STD are former Marines, and maybe they think just a little differently than those of us who have an Army background, but I have to admit that the prospect of replacing our non-construction of a border fence, and hugely discredited “virtual fences” with folks like the Berlin Brigade sounds darned enticing. I’m certain that drug smugglers who readily engage our Border Patrol with automatic weapons fire, and cartels that murder illegal alien “mules” in the employ of other cartels would demonstrate a considerably higher degree of respect for our border if instead of having the 6,000 National Guard soldiers currently engaged in civil engineering and logistical support we had a Division-plus of fully equipped combat troops. On top of this, our service members in Germany are among our very best.
Those soldiers in Germany effectively ensure that we provide for the defense of Europe so Europe doesn’t have to. That made sense during the Cold War, because Europe pretty much couldn’t afford to build adequate national defenses to deter Soviet aggression without our help. Now that the Cold War is over, taxpayers do have to wonder why we have such a huge physical commitment to the military defense of Europe when Europe seems to feel no reciprocal obligation to support American defense efforts. Not that Russia has, or will remain soft and cuddly for us, but maintaining a Cold War-level presence in Germany is pretty hard to justify. It’s just not the national security priority that it once was, and a redeployment of at least a portion of that effort to address more pressing national security concerns seems pretty reasonable.
If these soldiers effectively deterred the Soviet Union, it will certainly deter a huge proportion of the illegal aliens that now consider our borders little more than a joke. An Apache attack helicopter is something that automatically inspires a level of respect that is absolutely awesome, if not for the weapons platform which would doubtlessly never be needed, for the night vision systems that make it nearly impossible for people on foot to evade them in this kind of terrain. A credible military presence on our southern border would avert the deaths of hundreds of illegal aliens in the Sonoran desert every summer. The “rape trees” would disappear, along with the forced conscription of illegal aliens as drug mules, armed incursions on our border would screech to a halt, and the constant flood of illegal aliens crossing the border would all but end. It might appear to some that a strong military presence on our southern border would be overkill, but the situation there is beyond disturbing.
Need an example of why this might be called for? Within sight of our southern border in California is a compound operated by a Mexican drug cartel complete with a thirty foot concrete tower topped with a .50 caliber machine gun. If you use Google Earth, go to Latitude 32.60821506044025 Longitude -116.18931806486178, you’ll see something that looks like this:
Here’s the description I got about this somewhat unusual Mexican residence:
On a hill a couple hundred meters south, in a village where the average income is probably a few hundred dollars a year, sits a house with 20′ concrete wall, a 30′ tall observation tower, a mansion, an olympic-sized swimming pool, and a huge garage and warehouse. It’s a drug lord mansion right out of Hollywood movies. One night in 2005 when the Minutemen were there observing, thus preventing easy dope smuggling, the cartels turned to fighting themselves, with the mansion exchanging full-auto .50 caliber MG tracer fire with people below on the outside with full-auto AKs. This was all within sight of the U.S.A., and within slingshot range of the actual border. But apparently the American media and U.S. law enforcement in the area (let alone in Mexico, where military weapons are totally forbidden), isn’t much interested.
Just how long do you think these guys would continue to brazenly operate if less than a mile away an American infantry battalion was keeping them under observation? It’s pretty clear that these folks aren’t throwing spitballs when they’re protecting their drug smuggling routes into the United States. We can foolishly maintain the fallacy that the Border Patrol is adequately equipped to deal with this, or get serious about ensuring that our borders are secured with forces that can actually confront the level of violence that Mexican drug cartels is clearly capable of delivering.
C’mon, even if you are a Marine, you just gotta get all goose-bumpy at the idea of those who hold our national sovereignty in such casual disdain might just have that “oh, crap” moment when they realize that we’re actually serious about our national security. Better yet, call it the “M-2 Bradley moment”. Bob Marshall is spot-on here, and I can’t imagine why Jim Gilmore wouldn’t wholeheartedly endorse this idea. He doesn’t want to look weak here and continue to put our overwhelmed Border Patrol officers at risk, does he?
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Here is why we need to maintain troops in Europe:
February 11, 2008
Russia on the March: The Return of the Red Square Parades
by Ariel Cohen, Ph.D.
As Yogi Berra once said, “This is déjà vu all over again.” On May 9, heavy military equipment will once again roll down Moscow’s Red Square for the Victory Day military parade. Tanks, missiles, and 6,000 troops will be joined overhead by Su-27 and MiG-29 fighter aircraft and military helicopters. The last time Moscow saw such a display of military hardware on Red Square was in November 1990, before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The world should take notice of Russia’s increasing militarism. The parade is designed to generate nostalgia among the Russian people and to signal to the U.S., NATO, and Russia’s neighbors that Russia’s power is back. Most importantly, it illustrates President Vladimir Putin’s emphasis on the military and security services at the expense of modern, democratic institutions.
Putin justified Russia’s revived military muscle in his recent speech to the State Council, claiming that the new arms race has been triggered “by the world’s most developed countries”—a clear reference to the U.S. and the West. Russia’s rearmament, said Putin, is not caused by Russia but forced upon it by its adversaries. In response to this alleged challenge to Russia’s security, the Kremlin plans to produce and deploy in the next years new weapons claimed to match or best their Western equivalents. Russia will continue to research and develop revolutionary biological, nano, and information technologies with military applications. Putin also wants a new defense strategy for the Russian Armed Forces and the formation of an “innovative army” based on more professional and better trained servicemen.
Russia’s rearmament, the parade, its global maneuvers, and its new weapon systems are designed to make others respect Russia as well as deter NATO and the U.S., which Putin sees as a hegemonic superpower seeking to harm Russia. Russia wants to signal that it again has the military means to counter both perceived strategic threats, such as the U.S. missile defense system, and conventional military challenges, such as NATO expansion and the West’s superior air power. Fanfare communicates Russia’s intentions to tilt the global “correlation of forces” in Moscow’s favor and encourages Russia’s neighbors to do its bidding and not to challenge its security or its interests.
Russia is back on the world stage with all the attributes of power, including wealth and military might, for all to see. The next U.S. administration will have its hands full dealing with a resurgent Moscow.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/RussiaandEurasia/wm1805.cfm
These attacks on Bob Marshall are wearing thin. First they try to distract from the only real important issue, life, and then they try to attack Marshall for daring to point out that rapes have been on the rise since Roe v. Wade and we started contracepting ourselves out of existence? I guess they were just too busy with their Planned Parenthood committees and pandering to McDonnell to notice the REALITY. Well guess what? He’s right, God is punishing us and people DO have less respect for Women. Breast and ovarian cancer has been skyrocketing since the 1970s when Roe v. Wade was put into law. Think that’s a coincidence? Lets not forget:
“For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast? / Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it.”
ITS A PESTILENCE! Should we have any doubt that promiscuous women have brought ovarian cancer and breast cancer and rape upon this nation? THERE ARE 50 MILLION ABORTIONS PER DAY!! I’m amazed God hasn’t killed every first-born son yet (though quite a few are dead through abortions so maybe we did that to ourselves)!.
“And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.”
U.S. Navy Intercepts Russian Bombers Flying Near Ships
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
WASHINGTON — U.S. fighter planes intercepted two Russian bombers flying unusually close to an American aircraft carrier in the western Pacific during the weekend, The Associated Press has learned.
A U.S. military official says that one Russian Tupolev 95 buzzed the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz twice, at a low altitude of about 2,000 feet, while another bomber circled about 50 nautical miles out. The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because the reports on the flights were classified as secret.
The Saturday incident, which never escalated beyond the flyover, comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and Russia over U.S. plans for a missile defense system based in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Such Russian bomber flights were common during the Cold War, but have been rare since.
The bombers were among four Russian Tupolev 95s launched from Ukrainka in the middle of the night, including one that Japanese officials say violated their country’s airspace over an uninhabited island south of Tokyo.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330362,00.html
Ducky,
you really believe we need U.S. troops in Germany to deter Russia?
Hint…….we dont.
By the way Ducky, here’s the latest skipped votes by your “hero” Mccain.
http://www.democrats.org/a/2008/03/mccain_myth_bus_20.php
Isn’t he a great leader and deserves to be President (NOT!)
McCain Skips Vote to Give Tax Rebates to Seniors and Disabled Veterans. “McCain skipped a difficult Senate vote Wednesday on whether to make 20 million seniors and 250,000 disabled veterans eligible for rebate checks as part of a proposed economic stimulus package” despite the fact that he “was actually in Washington — his plane landed at Dulles Airport by 5 p.m., leaving plenty of time to make” the vote. [AP, 2/6/08; Politico.com, 2/6/08]
After casting himself as a “Maverick” in 2000, the new John McCain is walking in lockstep with President Bush, pandering to the right wing of the Republican Party, and embracing the ideology he once denounced. On the campaign trail McCain has callously abandoned many of his previously held positions, even contradicted himself, in a blatant attempt to remake himself into a candidate Republicans can accept in 2008. So just who is the real John McCain? The Democratic National Committee will present a daily fact aimed at exposing the man behind the myth.
Russian Bomber Buzzes Nimitz; Incident Raises Concern
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2008 – A weekend incident in which a Russian bomber “buzzed” the Nimitz battle group in the Pacific raises concerns about Russia’s intent and the message it was meant to send, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Congress today.
Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright told the Senate Budget Committee the encounter — in which U.S. F/A-18 jets scrambled to intercept a Russian Tu-95 Bear bomber as it flew at 2,000 feet above the battle group — ended without incident but raises big questions.
U.S. forces detected two Russian Tu-95s early Feb. 9 as they flew south of Japan, U.S. Pacific Fleet officials reported. The aircraft turned inbound toward USS Nimitz, and Carrier Air Wing 11 aircraft were launched to intercept them. Four F/A-18 fighter jets intercepted and escorted the Russian aircraft until they left the Nimitz’s operating area, officials said.
In total, four Russian Tu-95 bombers were involved, a Navy spokesman said. Two remained about 500 miles east of the U.S. ships, and another orbited about 50 miles away as one Tu-95 did two low passes over the Nimitz carrier group, he said.
“Now what we are concerned about is, ‘What are the indications of this return to a Cold War mindset?’” Cartwright told the committee in response to a senator’s question. “What are the implications of that activity, and how do we best address that?”
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48943
In the face of renewed Russian provocations, I don’t think removing our troops from Europe would be a good idea right now, and hardly “Reagan-esque.” General Cartwright doesn’t seem to think so. I am stunned that Marshall favors this sort of appeasement.
Russia slams US statement on intimidation of neighbours
Moscow, Feb 16 : Russia has strongly criticised US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for her recent comments that Moscow was “intimidating” its post-Soviet neighbours.
“The words about intimidation from Russia are, at the very least, inappropriate,” Mikhail Kamynin, a foreign ministry spokesperson, said Friday.
Responding to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent statement that Russia could retarget its missiles against Ukraine if the former Soviet republic joined NATO, Rice said Wednesday that the “reprehensible rhetoric that is coming out of Moscow is unacceptable, and it’s not helpful to a relationship that actually has some positive aspects.”
Rice also said that the US was “devoted to the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine and of other states that were once a part of the Soviet Union”.
Commenting on Ukraine’s bid for NATO membership, Putin said during a meeting with Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko in Moscow earlier this week that it was the country’s internal affair, but called on Kiev to think about the consequences of the move.
“It is terrifying even to think that in response (to Ukraine allowing anti-missile defences to be deployed on its territory) Russia could target its nuclear missile systems against Ukraine. This is what worries us,” Putin said.
http://www.newkerala.com/one.php?action=fullnews&id=23044
Since this is more of a law enforcement activity, wouldn’t placing the Army in the role of Border Patrol be a violation of the Posse Commitatus Act?
Ducky said on 16 Mar 2008 at 1:28 pm:
Russian Bomber Buzzes Nimitz; Incident Raises Concern
McCain wouldn’t allow that situation to go unchallenged (or would he?)
Oh, I believe that at least a major scale-back is in order. I do believe they could do a very nice job of securing our border….and if the Russians should get REALLY brave, as Ducky fears, it wouldn’t be the troops currently in Europe that would take care of the situation anyway.
Greg:
http://www.spankthatdonkey.com/spankthatdonkey2/2008/3/17/why-we-shouldnt-pull-down-troops-in-germany.html
We agree on the border situation, but I think you will find this argument persuasive also.
Medvedev signals he will continue Putin’s tough stance on West
The Associated Press
Published: March 3, 2008
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin fast-tracked the transfer of power to his newly elected protege Monday and signaled the Kremlin won’t back down from its pull-no-punches anti-U.S. foreign policy or ease up on its critics at home.
President-elect Dmitry Medvedev credited his overwhelming election victory Sunday to Putin’s policies that have “so effectively been pursued in recent years.”‘
Medvedev has stressed he will pursue Putin’s foreign and domestic agenda, and in a sign that little would change, Russia squeezed natural gas supplies to Western-leaning Ukraine, and police in Moscow manhandled opposition protesters who denounced the election as a farce.
Also in Moscow, a pro-Kremlin youth group kept up criticism of the United States, a frequent target of Putin’s wrath in eight years as president. Hundreds of young people took aim at the U.S. Embassy in a march to denounce American foreign policy.
In his rhetoric, Medvedev has presented a softer image. But in his dual role as an official and simultaneously chairman of state-controlled natural gas monopoly OAO Gazprom, he has helped implement Putin’s drive to give the Kremlin a near-monopoly on political power and energy resources at home and increase its clout abroad through energy supplies.
On Monday, Gazprom made good on a threat to reduce gas supplies to Ukraine in a debt dispute that Moscow says is strictly financial.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/03/news/Russia-Presidential-Election.php
Loudoun Pro-Lifer, your assertion that increased rates of ovarian and breast cancer are the punishment of a vengeful God is breathtaking. Your concept of a Supreme Being with emotional problems is amazing.
Even more troubling is that you place the blame for this Divine retribution on promiscuous women. What about the men? As the lesbians aren’t responsible for an increase in the abortion rate, one has to assume that there are an equivilent number of promiscuous men ticking off the Almighty. Why no mention of them?
Your misogyny is showing.
In all of this discussion, there are three very important items that have been ignored: Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania.
All were Warsaw Pact prisoners (to call them “allies” of the Soviets would be an insult to all three); all are now NATO allies that have removed Germany from any front line.
With a modernizing Polish army, and agreements to station American troops in Romania and Bulgaria, our Forward Defense is in fine shape.
Should we have some troops in Germany? Perhaps, but they are desperately needed preventing al Qaeda from coming through our porous border.
I would also note that Polaad, Romania and Bulgaria all border the Ukraine, while Germany does not. Also Romania and Bulgaria are far nearer to the vital Caucuses region (to say nothing of the Middle East and Central Asia) than Germany.
Loudoun Pro-Lifer,
I have to agree with Dan…if your line of thinking is correct, what about the men? Also, as a woman who is NOT promiscuous and was treated for cervical pre-cancerous lesions, I am completely insulted. I’m also tremendously insulted that you think we have a God that would strike down women is such a way. Did it ever occur that the reason is seems we have higher rates of cervical, ovarian, uterine, and breast cancer is due to other things, like better diagnosis? Or environmental causes? Or genetics?
And 50 million abortions per DAY??? Where do you get your information? Please, please…I am a pro-lifer, too, but don’t make us look like raving lunatics by spouting off random numbers that aren’t valid. According to Reuters Health report, there were 1.2 million abortions the entire year of 2005. While that is a lot, all the legit reports show that abortion is on the decline. The Daily Conservative has a nice summary about it.