The wall is finally coming up… well sort of. 5,000 active duty military have been called to the Southwest border. They're coming in waves with 800 on the way right now. The emergency deployment will join over 2,000 National Guard troops that are already on the ground. On top of all that, another 7,000 troops have been put on 24-hour emergency standby.
That means that if these migrant caravans are now the new norm, they could possibly run smack dab into a hardened U.S. border of 14,000 troops. And those troops won't be carrying wet noodles as weapons. The Secretary of Defense has given the go ahead for them to carry live ammunition. Mattis clearly means business here.
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So let's think through this — fairly — for a second. First of all, unusual situations call for emergency actions. Homeland Security has confirmed that the migrant caravan is still on it's way, albeit slowly, and is about four thousand strong. They also announced the existence of a second caravan forming in Guatemala of about three thousand. Homeland Security and Defense Secretary Mattis are obviously treating this very seriously.
Even though some have mocked calling these caravans an invasion, and I won't name who (cough CNN), our Department of Defense and law enforcement are very clearly treating it as one. Mattis is deploying troops along classic military doctrine. He's matching the caravan's numbers by a two to one ratio. Nearly 8,000 troops to match a four thousand strong caravan, and 14,000 if the second caravan links up with the first swelling their numbers to seven thousand.
So to any media magician trying to spin what this caravan really is — and I don't know how you can describe a potential force of seven thousand people approaching your border carrying a foreign flag anything at all besides an invasion — but all you have to do is look at how our Defense Department is preparing. It's classic military style doctrine preparing for an unconventional attack on the country.
It's classic military style doctrine preparing for an unconventional attack on the country.
But I said that I want to be fair here. Unexpected and irregular tactics call for emergency action, and I definitely feel safer knowing our men and women in green and blue are standing watch on the border. Quite frankly we don't know what to expect here, so it's good that they're on watch. But this can not be the new norm on the border. Build the wall if you have to… and actually these new developments have pretty much made that a necessity.
But after this new threat has been properly evaluated, come up with a plan for the future that better strengthens our border and get the military out of there. Local law enforcement protects our streets, and the border patrol protects our borders. The new standard can not be the military on our borders 100% of the time. Maybe this sounds like crazy talk, but emergency situations always give birth to emergency — and permanent — changes. The federal income tax and the Patriot Act are but two examples of many.
All of this is for nothing unless the Federal Government finally comes to their senses on our weak border. Maybe this will be the catalyst that changes all that.
