Post #294,693
10/17/07 4:02:10 PM
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And along our southern border...
Two years ago, I had a small post about the 700-mile fence we're building along the Mexico border. [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=238276|http://z.iwethey.org...?contentid=238276]
Here's some followup.
[link|http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-martinez17oct17,0,5062531.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail|http://www.latimes.c...opinion-rightrail]
[...]
"Soon, this border will get a much more powerful and disturbing representation. If the Department of Homeland Security and the Army Corps of Engineers have their way, a "vehicle barrier" made of railroad ties will cut across the river (although it will have to be removed each year before the monsoon floods, which would easily whisk it away). There are plans for permanent vehicle barriers just beyond the riverbed -- steel posts sunk into 3 feet of concrete. And for "pedestrian fencing" made of double rows of concrete-filled 14- to 17-foot-high bollards. And for the "Sandia"-style variant, which uses panels of tight steel mesh. There will be a new "all-weather" road, lighting and electronic surveillance towers.
And a price tag of $7 billion. For starters."
[...]
Tight steel mesh. Towers.
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Post #294,701
10/17/07 7:50:33 PM
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Absolutely laughable.
How soon before we hear "Mr(s) President, tear down that wall"? I predict the War on illegal immigration will have the same smashing success as the War on drugs.
What was the last war* the US had that had any measurable success? I'd have to say Johnson's war on poverty.
(For certain values of war)
*Grenada was not a war, so don't got there. Nor was Panama.
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Atheism is a religion in the same sense that not collecting stamps is a hobby.
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Post #294,704
10/17/07 8:39:25 PM
10/17/07 8:50:28 PM
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Gulf War I went pretty well for the USA.
Oh, I had the same thoughts as both of you on reading that snippet. While there is certainly a need for the US to better control its borders, that section of wall isn't going to have much effect on the numbers entering the country.
It's a good article. Thanks, dm.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #294,707
10/17/07 8:49:11 PM
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Yes it did.
A bit of a foregone conclusion though. If there's no real capability of resistance, can you call it a war? Beatdown maybe. Romp?
It all goes back to which value of "war" you accept.
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Atheism is a religion in the same sense that not collecting stamps is a hobby.
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Post #294,712
10/17/07 9:28:25 PM
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It wasn't a cakewalk.
[link|http://www.fas.org/news/iraq/1998/02/20/us_bombs_not_much__smarter_.htm|FAS]: Desert Storm, after all, was geared to boot Iraq's 300,000-man army out of occupied Kuwait. The first phase of the air campaign was aimed at Saddam Hussein's air-defense systems, communications network, Scud missiles, chemical and nuclear facilities - the military infrastructure that kept him in control. But the next phases focused on wiping out his army in southern Iraq and Kuwait, including three armored divisions that had buried their tanks under reinforced shelters.
Of the 36,245 strikes mounted over the 43-day air war, 24,430 - nearly two-thirds - were fired at the tank divisions. The weapon of choice was the ancient B-52 bomber - which alone dropped one-third of the air war's 88,500 tons of ordnance in Vietnam-style carpet-bombing raids. (Despite that pounding, only about one-third of Iraq's tanks were destroyed before the land war began.) You're right - the conclusion was foregone, at least as long as W and Rumsfeld weren't running it. :-/ Cheers, Scott.
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Post #294,754
10/18/07 10:28:55 AM
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yup, they have already found illegals helping to build it
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 51 years. meep
reach me at [link|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net]
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Post #294,784
10/18/07 7:03:54 PM
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What?!?
No "no man's land" of razor wire and land mines? No radar-controlled machine-gun towers?
The Dept Of Fatherland Security has not been paying attention to its Stazi forebearers, now have they? But that would be yet another instance of Yankee arrogance; after all, we do know everything about defense and security, don't we..we're Americans!!!, dammit!
jb4
"It's hard for me, you know, living in this beautiful White House, to give you a firsthand assessment."
— George W. Bush, when asked if he believed Iraq was in a state of civil war (Newsweek, 26 Feb 07)
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Post #294,863
10/19/07 3:42:01 PM
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No DMZ, but...
>>> No radar-controlled machine-gun towers?
Not yet, but they do have:
[...]
"The plan is that when migrants cross the SBInet's virtual fence, a LORROS camera, manufactured by Kollsman, Inc. of Merrimack, New Hampshire, will instantly detect their entry. These cameras will sit on top of specially designed towers (erected by DRS Technologies of Parsippany, New Jersey), that are almost 100 feet tall and are each surrounded by a six-foot high chain link fence. These towers are equipped with Man-Portable Surveillance and Target Acquisition Radar (MStar) devices, that relay real-time electronic images to a private sector communications center.
When suspected migrants are spotted, a private enforcement contractor can take manual command of the camera, zoom in and identify the number of individuals as well as their means of transport. After classifying the "threat," the contractor electronically transfers the entrants' coordinates to Border Patrol agents via laptop computers mounted inside their vehicles.
"The coordinates allow the Agent the ability to understand where they are in proximity to the threat," a Border Patrol official wrote recently in SBI Monthly, a newsletter published by the agency, in an attempt to describe how SBInet would work. "Moments later, the agent locates the illegal aliens and makes the apprehensions."
Boeing has so far erected nine of the towers, each almost 100 feet tall, that scan a 360-degree radius for a distance of ten miles. Ground radar sensors will also attempt to detect footsteps, bicycles and vehicles."
more in the article...
[link|http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14552|http://www.corpwatch...icle.php?id=14552]
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Post #295,415
10/30/07 10:04:31 PM
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Ka-ching, Ka-ching!
Alex
Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law. -- Sophocles (496? - 406 BCE)
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