Terrorism threat justifies troops on borders

There are forces that don't want the borders closed or even monitored. Apparently those within the Beltway are siding with special interest groups that are more interested in the bottom line and in providing new voters for their political machine than with the safety of the United States.

We are arriving to a tipping point. The recent events in Lodi, California have shocked the nation. Are we rushing to secure the borders as do other countries?

When other countries feel threatened by terrorism, their leaders do the most prudent thing they can think of: They deploy military forces along their borders, to help prevent infiltration.

They figure, and rightly so, there is no force better equipped and trained to defend their sovereign territory. More so than police, federal agents, and volunteer civilians, however well-intended they may be.

That's why it wasn't surprising to me to read this past weekend that Russian defense officials – increasingly concerned about terrorists infiltrating from neighboring Georgia, where tensions have been growing – ordered a beefed up military presence along the common border.

There are calls to secure the border but nothing from Washington. Ignoring almost completely conditions here at home, at the highest levels their collective gaze is on the Middle East rather than here at home.

And yet, while our leaders task that military with orders to protect Afghan and Iraqi borders from terrorist infiltration, our own boundaries remain woefully under-defended by a grossly out-manned and increasingly demoralized Border Patrol. It's obscene.

"Concern is growing at the top levels of government about the U.S.-Mexican border becoming a back door for terrorists entering the United States," the Christian Science Monitor reported in March. "While al-Qaida infiltration across the nation's southern border has been a constant concern since 9-11, U.S. officials cite recent intelligence giving the most definitive evidence yet that terrorists are planning to use it as an entry point – if they haven't already."

United States law prohibits the use the military within the borders of the U.S. except under certain circumstances. A bill is coming up to

amend Title 10, to authorize the Secretary of Defense to assign members of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Cops, under certain circumstances and subject to certain conditions, to assist the Department of Homeland Security in the performance of border protection functions.

The politically correct view is that the the use of the military would violate civil rights. However, without the military's protection there will be nothing left to protect as we are being to the chaos of conflicting and unfriendly agendas of various groups that have entered unimpeded and are using U.S. laws to further their own objectives at the expense of the American people.

This will be a drastic change and opposition will be great:

Opposition politicians will decry this measure as authoritarianism on the part of the Bush administration. The military brass will hate it because it will put even more strain on their available forces. But the White House and Congress should resist these complaints and ask themselves if protecting Europe from no one or South Korea from a starving North Korea is more important than preventing another 9-11.

We need our military here, we need them now. Contact your representatives to get the ball rolling.