Bush to send troops to border
POSTED BY: rklenseth
UPDATED: Friday, May 19, 2006 00:56
VIEWED: 8734
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Nothing officially confirmed yet but it appears Bush is sending troops to guard the borders and that as well as the immigration problem in general is what Bush big speech is about tomorrow.
Just thought some of you might be interested to know.
Oh, and play Cantr II at www.cantr.net.
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I read about this on DailyKos. It's part of King George's plan to vault back into the magical land of 30%+ approval. At 29% he feels a little too unpopular I guess. BTW, he nixed plans to send 10,000 extra Border Patrol agents to patrol the California to South Texas region earlier this year due to the expense of the plan. Now that his approval ratings have set new personal lows (and are approaching Nixon's ratings before he resigned) he's decided to send those Guardsmen to the border with Mexico for PR opportunities and also to fire up the Republican (racist, xenophobic) base before this November's midterm elections. Josh Bolten actually called this the "Guns and Badges" strategy to minimize expected losses in November.
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Fairly simple distraction policy to turn peoples attention away from real issues. Just like Tony Blair signing a petition against Animal extremists in U.K. to distract people from the fact that his government is coming apart.
Bush is looking for a domestic issue to get peoples backs up and Illegals is his best shot.
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Quote:
Originally posted by oldenglanddry:
Bush is looking for a domestic issue to get peoples backs up and Illegals is his best shot.
Right, but does that mean that this isn't a real issue? Just because Bush says it's important doesn't mean that it's not important. While I fully understand why people are cynical about the timing of this, it's something that needs to be addressed (and should have been a long time ago).
Other people can occasionally be useful, especially as minions. I want lots of minions.
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Immigration does need to be addressed, primarily with the guest worker to citizenship program that Democrats, centrist Republicans and even Bush backed until the crazy right wing of the Republican Party shut that plan down in Congress. Now that Bush is desperate he's pulling PR stunts like this to shore up his base. In the end this will cost him even more Mexican American support (and shore up the Democrats standing in the Mexican American community) and won't bring new voters into the Republican Party. There are also massive logistical and financial problems associated with an operation of this size with the National Guard. We have all seen how well this administration has managed large scale operations in the past, so I'm not confident that "Operation Save Bush's Ass" will even work as intended.
At least Nixon had the decency to resign. What's up Bush?
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It's like he's trying to kill the National Guard. They're already pulling more than their fair share of duty in Iraq and now they're going to be rotated down to the border as well? And we think we're having retention and recruiting problems now - where is the money and manpower for this coming from?
One day.
One plan.
One army of Browncoats.
On June 23rd, we aim to misbehave.
http://www.serenityday.org/
http://forum.serenityday.org/
Little or no free time, but want to help?
Help Spread the Signal: http://www.geocities.com/browncoatsignalcorps
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Quote:
Originally posted by Zisker:
It's like he's trying to kill the National Guard. They're already pulling more than their fair share of duty in Iraq and now they're going to be rotated down to the border as well? And we think we're having retention and recruiting problems now - where is the money and manpower for this coming from?
There are 400,000 National Guard. He's talking about using less then 3%. I did wonder if that included those already deployed by some of the border states.
Also, at least they all have experiance at desert operations. I also suggest the such operational deployments in the US are easier on the troops then deployments to Iraq, both because the climate is better and because fewer people are trying to kill them.
I'm for a temporary closing of the border till we figure this all out. Close the border, train new border guards, create a guest worker program (along with criminal penalties for hiring or renting housing to illegals...to encourage compliance with the program), and then reopen with more control. Mexico may not like it, but controling the border is our soveriegn right.
I note for the record the Mexico treats illegals far harsher then we do and that Mexico can also control its side of the border and has chosen not to.
H
H
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Quote:
Originally posted by Hero:
There are 400,000 National Guard. He's talking about using less then 3%. I did wonder if that included those already deployed by some of the border states.
Also, at least they all have experiance at desert operations. I also suggest the such operational deployments in the US are easier on the troops then deployments to Iraq, both because the climate is better and because fewer people are trying to kill them.
Having run this sentiment past a few of my buddies who have served in Iraq and done 'home' deployments just guarding NYC mass transit hubs (which would be less of a hassle than sitting on the border), the unanimous consensus is along the lines of "A deployment is a deployment away from your friends, family and job and it sucks". The National Guard is already being abused by the administration and further strain is not going to be appreciated by the already over-taxed soldiers - and spare me the "you knew what you were signing up for" spiel. In this case, many didn't. They're going to respond by 'voting with their feet', as it were.
Unless Bush is planning to use the one NG Brigade in the SW that was declared Combat Ineffective (and do we really want that kind of unit out there?), this is definately going to rile a number of soldiers. The 3% statistic isn't going to matter for the people you're effecting: long-term, if enough soldiers are unhappy and leave, the Guard - which has already undergone reorganizations recently - will be forced to do so again at least in that region.
Sadly, this is what the Guard was designed and intended to do, but Bush's use of them as his personal toy soldiers has tossed a wrench in the system.
One day.
One plan.
One army of Browncoats.
On June 23rd, we aim to misbehave.
http://www.serenityday.org/
http://forum.serenityday.org/
Little or no free time, but want to help?
Help Spread the Signal: http://www.geocities.com/browncoatsignalcorps
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"fire up the Republican (racist, xenophobic) base"
Is it at all possible that someone might want to place controls on unlimited immigration without being racist or xenophobic? Is it possible that someone might be Republican without being racist or xenophobic?
Just checking.
--Anthony
"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner
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Having controls on immigration is fine - but I think we have to be practical too. You can't just wave a magic wand and say "poof" all the illegals are gone and now we have people to partol the borders. It costs money, man-power, training, etc. I think the guest worker program is pragmatic and necessary and tightening the borders is necessary. It isn't the idea, but the execution that is troubling.
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