I have provided you with yet another news report from Jerry Seper of the Washington Times, a journalist who has been pounding away at so many of the failures of the government of the United States to address the critically important issues of border security and other components of the immigration “system” that is a system in name only.
The article I have provided you,
“GAO says ‘virtual fence’ along Mexican border over budget” appeared in the Friday, 22 October edition of the Washington Times and reports on a GAO report (yet another one) that addresses the unmitigated incompetence of the Department of Homeland Security to create a “virtual fence” along the border that is *supposed* to separate the United States from Mexico.
Add this failure to a succession of ever so many, indeed, far too many, failures of DHS to do what it claims are its missions. This is why I have come to DHS as the Department of Homeland Surrender.
I have been critical of the concept of the “Virtual Fence” officially known as SBInet (Secure Border Initiative Network) ever since the government came up with this concept. The idea of a “Virtual Fence” is, in my humble opinion ridiculous! When I appeared on a series of televised news programs to discuss the Virtual Fence, being mindful of the value of a “sound bite” I often made the succinct prediction that the Virtual Fence would stop virtually no one!
The official name of the Virtual Fence, Secure Border Initiative Network sounds downright military. It sounds as though they may well have dug up General George S. Patton and brought him back to life to lead the charge and protect our nation. But of course General Patton is not leading the charge and as tough sounding as the official name for the Virtual Fence might be, it is not even close to being completed and our nation’s borders continue to bleed red and green!
Yet the price tag on this project is purportedly four billion dollars! Think of how many Border Patrol agents, ICE special agents, and other personnel that sort of money could pay for! Give some thought to how high the ultimate price tag for this project may ultimately go! And I can assure that the money being poured into this fiasco is not “virtual money” but actual money!
While it is important for the Border Patrol to be alerted to the entry of people who run our nation’s borders in an attempt to circumvent the inspections process, knowing about these illegal entries is worthless unless there are an adequate number of Border Patrol agents to respond to the alerts that individuals are running the border. To simply alert the Border Patrol to individuals running the border and not having the resources to respond to the alerts being sounded by the Virtual Fence only frustrates the Border Patrol and squanders precious tax payer dollars.
On those occasions when the Border Patrol actually managed to muster enough agents to apprehend the unlawful entrants only to have to release them under the insane concept of “catch and release” not only frustrated the agents but sent the clear message to smugglers and aliens who might be contemplating running our borders that the odds were good that they would ultimately succeed in illegally entering the United States. What a dangerous message that is, especially when among the many illegal aliens who routinely violate our nation’s borders and laws are criminals and terrorists!
In my judgment our nation and our citizens would have been far better served if instead of attempting to create a “Virtual Fence” if more jail space was acquired and more Border Patrol agents and support personnel were hired along with more attorneys and immigration judges and detention officers. I suspect that our “leaders” in Washington did not do this because this might well have been far more effective at dealing with the massive influx of illegal aliens that enter our country each and every day!
The money also would have been better spent if many more special agents were hired for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) along with providing them with more support personnel and other resources such as providing them with support personnel, jail space and whatever equipment might be needed to enhance their efforts to enforce the immigration laws from within the interior of the United States. Again, this approach might well have yielded real results rather than create the illusion of securing our nation.
If you doubt my reasoning, please explain why our “leaders” ranging from the President of the United States to members of both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives have made it clear that if they get their way, they will deal with the unknown millions of illegal aliens who have, in one way or another, entered our country and embedded themselves in communities clear across our nation by placing them on a pathway to United States citizenship! This would effectively establish running our nation’s borders as a prerequisite to be naturalized! Can you think of anything more morally and legally bankrupt than that?
Could you imagine any program that might undermine national security more swiftly and effectively than providing perhaps tens of millions of illegal aliens whose true identities, backgrounds, potential affiliation with criminal or terrorist organizations with United States citizenship in any name that these millions of illegal aliens would *claim* relate to them?
Our nation has suffered a number of terrorist attacks committed on our soil by terrorists from foreign countries. Not all were successful, thankfully, but consider that in 1993 our nation was attacked twice by Muslim extremist terrorists- in January of 1993 Amir Kansi, a citizen of Pakistan who had succeeded in being granted political asylum by lying on his application, committing fraud, repaid our nation’s kindness by standing outside CIA Headquarters with an AK-47 and opened fire on the cars being driven by CIA employees who were arriving for work. He killed two CIA officers and wounded three others. The very next month, the World Trade Center was attacked by additional Muslim extremists and six innocent victims were slaughtered and hundreds of others were injured. Approximately one half billion dollars in damages were inflicted on what had been the one of the most recognizable and magnificent features of the famed skyline of New York City.
Clearly the terrorists had our nation in their sights and now they were making it clear that they would no longer be content to attack our embassies and other locations scattered around the world, they were upping the ante and striking within our nation’s borders!
You might think that this message would not be lost on our “leaders” yet nothing was done to secure our nation’s borders. Nothing was done to tighten up on the visa issuing process. Nothing was done to address the ease with which aliens could seek to enter our country and easily hide in plain sight.”
Those attacks of 1993 happened more than 17 years ago!
Had the Clinton Administration learned the lessons that those attacks should have taught them, the attacks of September 11, 2001 might well have be averted.
But of course the lessons went unlearned. Our government’s “leaders” did nothing to address the vulnerabilities that made those two terrorist attacks committed on our soil possible. Attacks that killed innocent people and nearly reduced the World Trade Center to rubble. Had one of the tower fallen it is entirely reasonable to presume that tens of thousands of innocent people would have perished in lower Manhattan, perhaps still rendering that important center of commerce and trade uninhabitable. This set the stage for what was to follow 8 years later on September 11, 2001.
The Bush Administration declared a “War on Terror” in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001 and sent Border Patrol agents to secure the Iraqi border against the entry of terrorists and insurgents but left our border wide open. Clearly both sides of the political aisle are responsible for the lunacy that continues to threaten our nation’s security and the survival of our citizens!
In the name of “National Security” we have witnessed a continual erosion of our expectations of privacy and freedom yet the Visa Waiver Program continues to be expanded.
Our officials claim that the terrorists only need to get it right once while to protect our nation and our citizens, we have to be right 100% of the time! Yet every day that illegal aliens pour across our nation’s borders provides the terrorists and the criminals with opportunities to smuggle their operatives into our country along with the possibility that they will manage to get weapons of mass destruction into our country.
As I am sure you know, I host an Internet radio program, “Bordering on Insanity” on Friday evenings from 7:00 PM until 9:00 PM Eastern Time. Today it was an honor that Charles Faddis appeared as my guest on my program. He was, until two years ago, the Chief of the CIA’s WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) Terrorism Unit. (He is the author of a book that should be on everyone’s required reading list- especially our nation’s leaders list, a book that was aptly named, “Willful Neglect.”
Charles made an obvious but highly important statement during our conversation. He said that it was absurd to think that if illegal aliens who have no skills or training or resources could easily enter our country by running our nation’s borders that sophisticated terrorists could not or would not easily enter our country so that they could attack us.
Yet, when you read Jerry Seper’s insightful and disturbing article, you have to wonder at the madness that passes for national security!
You have to wonder about what our leaders think they are supposed to be doing to make certain that our nation is secure. According to the article the fence might be completed by 2016 or then again, it may never be completed! Yet every day provides the possibility that the terrorists may smuggle their operatives into the United States or a weapon of mass destruction! Every day criminals do run our nation’s borders and people across our nation are being killed and injured!
Every day that the flood of illegal aliens continues, more aliens who seek to send money out of the United States and out of our nation’s struggling economy manage to enter our country. The outrageous failures associated with the “Virtual Fence” have resulted in the squandering of precious money and even worse, precious time that can never be retrieved.
A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 occurred more than 9 years ago.
I would remind you that the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and just 44 months later, the war was successfully concluded. Back then the United States and its allies accomplished this audacious success by building fleets of airplanes that had previously never existed. Fleets of ships of all sorts that had never existed. Weapons that hadn’t existed previously including atomic weapons. Back then the United States was regarded with awe throughout the world. Our nation’s unofficial two word motto was simply, “Can do!”
Americans who brought our nation through those dark days of the Second World War are remembered by history as the “Greatest Generation!”
I guess you could say that our nation now has “Virtual Leadership” and has suffered from this malady for decades!
If *We the People fail to get involved in the democratic process and live up to our obligation as citizens of this nation, I fear that history may well remember our generation as America’s “Last Generation!”
If reading this makes it difficult for you to sleep tonight- perhaps you could do something worthwhile- perhaps you might spend a couple of your sleepless hours writing letters to your elected representatives this evening and remind them that Election Day is just days away!
We the People can add to the consternation of these politicians who are failing to live up to their oaths of office by contacting them and making it abundantly clear that election day is coming and they should think of election day as their personal “Day of Reckoning!” . Our government must live up to its obligation of protecting its own citizens and, indeed, all who are present in our country from the criminals and terrorists who would threaten our lives and the survival of our nation and our way of life. In the end, the government is actually those who are elected to act as our “leaders.” Those who fail to truly lead and look out for those they are supposed to represent, need to be sent packing this coming Election Day!
If our country is to survive and if our children and their children are to get their share of the “American Dream” the citizens of this nation must take their citizenship seriously!
We the People must be the best citizens we can be, citizens who are worthy of the gallantry demonstrated by our valiant men and women in the military, law enforcement and firefighters, who routinely go in harm’s way in defense of this nation and our citizens.
My goal in writing this and other commentaries is to point out our nations many failings *before* more victims pay the ultimate price for the incompetence and ineptitude of our government.
The first step in problem-solving is to first identify the problems and vulnerabilities and then devise strategies to overcome them.
Any politician who refuses to work to secure our borders and create an immigration system that has integrity is either corrupt or too dumb to keep his (her) job. Any politician, irrespective of party affiliation who favors Comprehensive Immigration Reform and the outrageous betrayal that this would represent given the national security implications that this program would have, should be shown the door at the next election!
If you find yourself to be in agreement with this commentary, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”
In just over one week, each and every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection and more than one third of the members of the United States Senate will have to face their constituents. They need to be reminded that they work for us, We the People!
However, the practice of good citizenship does not end in the voting booth, it only begins there.
The large scale apathy demonstrated by citizens of this nation has emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups. There is much that we cannot do but there is one thing that We the People absolutely must do- we must stop sitting on the sidelines!
The collective failure of We the People to get involved in make our concerns known to our politicians have nearly made the concerns of the great majority of the citizens of this nation all but irrelevant to the politicians. I implore you to get involved!
If this situation concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional “Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation!
All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are!
We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance.
This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!
You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!
Democracy is not a spectator sport!*
Lead, follow or get out of the way!
