it is impossible to secure the border without deploying basically the entire military to it.
Thats utter nonsense
but suppose that were true
Arent you a lib who agrees with trump that foreign wars must end so we can bring our troops home?
we can put them to better use right here in Texas, New Mexoco, Arizona and California
It is true. Walls and fences work when you have guards on them. It is why Prisons have guard towers. Otherwise the prisoners just leave. The White House has a fence around it. And when someone goes over it the guards rush and capture the person.
Without guards in the walls there is nothing to stop someone from going over, under, or through it.
Now even basic math should show you how impossible it is to station sufficient guards on the southern border. The border is some 2,000 miles long. When setting up a defensive perimeter you normally cover it with troops. One soldier for every six to ten feet. So let’s figure we would need about one and a half million troops to stand to on the border. That is half of our total military strength including National Guard and Reserves. Half.
Now before you say see we can do it. That includes all Air Force personnel. All the Naval Personnel. That is cooks, dentists, chaplains, medics and the rest. So to support that number we will need a much, much, larger military.
Now. What happens if we use less. Let’s just use half a million. Seems more reasonable. But it won’t work. Because gaps in the coverage would allow people to slip through. See the Korean DMZ for proof of that.
The ratio of infantry to the army is ten to one. For every infantryman there are ten soldiers in support. That is medical, dental, supply, engineers, artillery, tanks, transportation, and a host of other specialties.
So if we wanted half a million troops on the southern border we would need a five million man army. But it would be more than that. With each soldier getting thirty days of leave a year you need another ten percent just to cover people on vacation. Then you need people to go to various schools. Career advancement must be considered. We are up to a six million man army aren’t we.
If we wanted to keep a navy and Air Force we would need 5% of our population in uniform. I could go on but even the most dense among us should see this is just impossible.
But let’s pretend we can bring home all the troops overseas. We need them on the Southern Border. How long before the US is isolated in the world? A generation? Less? We would be isolated and impotent. Europe would become a Vassal of Russia. Asia would become all Chinese. South and Central America would become Socialist. We would be outnumbered by what? Sixty to one?
We would fall. Assuming our economy managed to hold out for that entire time. We would still fall.
We as a population have become dumber. And judging from the things you advocate we are headed into the deep end of the dumb pool as fast as we can.
When Obama started us into Syria I objected. I knew as everyone should have that Russia would never let Syria fall. There is one Russian Naval Base in the region. It is in Syria. We would Nuke someone before we let our naval base in Guantanamo fall. We would bomb half of Europe before we gave up our naval base in Spain. We would invade Italy to protect our bases there. To think that Russia would not do similar was the height of arrogance. BTW that was part of the reason I voted for Trump in 2016.
I do not oppose deployments. I don’t even oppose combat deployments. I always oppose stupid. Going into Afghanistan was dumb. As we pull back what is happening? The same people who were in charge before we showed up are back in charge now. They have worn us down and gone from intolerable to acceptable.
In the meantime the entire region is more unstable. We have more Jihadists to keep track of than ever before. Saudi is threatened on all sides. Europe is drowning in refugees from our idiocy. Millions are dead and millions more are out for revenge.
We never had a plan. We still don’t. We are fighting now because we don’t want to admit we lost. John McCain was right. He said if it took a hundred years to win in Afghanistan that is what we should be willing to do.
And it will take a hundred years. Assuming we ever get started. We will have to educate each generation to a more sectarian idealism. Dragging them from the 7th century to today. We would have to establish industry. Jobs. Increased standards of living. Westernize the entire country.
We haven’t even started that yet. And without that we can’t possibly win. So the Taliban is back in charge. And we keep fighting and dying because we are too proud to admit we lost.
It is a lesson we should have learned in Vietnam. But we forgot it and became amazed with our own technology. Even now we pretend it is the other guys fault when we discuss our loss in Afghanistan. It’s the Democrats. The Republicans. The other guys are responsible. It is us. We are responsible. We never had a plan. And we will never spend the time or money to actually win. We really can’t afford to.
I don’t oppose deployments. I oppose stupid.
