Thread: AZ: Where are the promised border troops?

Where are the promised border troops?

by By E. J. Montini, Columnist - Jun. 20, 2010 08:25 PM
The Arizona Republic

So where are the troops?

Last month, President Barack Obama promised to deploy 1,200 National Guard troops to the Southwest border.

Sen. John McCain said that 1,200 was "not good enough" and got the Senate Armed Services Committee to approve 6,000 troops. At least that is what we are being told, again and again, in a McCain campaign commercial.

So when do the soldiers get here?

Back when the president made his announcement, Gov. Jan Brewer said, "My signing of Senate Bill 1070 has clearly ignited the talk of action in Washington for the people of Arizona and other border states. I am pleased that President Obama has now, apparently, agreed that our nation must secure the border to address rampant border violence and illegal immigration."

That is all well and good but . . . the troops?

On Friday, Brewer's office announced that "representatives" from the White House would be coming to Arizona on June 28.

Representatives are not troops.

So I contacted the White House, which sent me to the Department of Homeland Security, where a spokesman in Secretary Janet Napolitano's office told me that President Obama had promised Gov. Brewer "that there were White House people who would be coming to Arizona to brief her by the end of the month and that timetable is forthcoming."

Among the things that are not forthcoming, apparently, are troops. At least the 1,200 promised by the president.

So I contacted Sen. McCain's campaign people to ask about his tough-talking commercial touting the 6,000 troops.

I wondered if those National Guard members would be arriving soon in Arizona.

The McCain campaign folks said they couldn't answer that question (in spite of the TV ad) and referred me to a spokeswoman in McCain's Washington, D.C., Senate office.

It turns out that the approval for 6,000 troops that McCain got through the Senate Armed Services Committee is attached to a larger Senate bill.

According to news reports, McCain's proposal might be challenged by the administration as an infringement on the authority of the commander in chief.

As for the troops, a McCain spokeswoman told me that the senator has no control over when bills actually come up for a vote.

Which means that no timetable for deployment could be provided.

And that no one knows for sure if the McCain amendment calling for the 6,000 troops will get through Congress without changes. Or if those changes would alter the number of troops. Or when any of this would occur.

The spokeswoman for the senator added, however, "Senator McCain is confident we will succeed in securing the border."

That's good to know.

Although I'm uncertain how that is going to happen without troops.

Gov. Brewer has been urged by some in Arizona to dispatch a large contingent of Guard members on her own but said that the state doesn't have the money to fund the type of major deployment that is necessary.

Expressing her anger in the weeks before signing SB 1070, Brewer said, "Arizona is frustrated, and we're going to push back."

And maybe we have. But pushing back hasn't led to a major military deployment either.

So I'm left wondering - or maybe not - if all this tough talk about troops has less to do with securing the border than it does with securing elections.

www.azcentral.com

Sorry, but there were mineral deposits discovered in Afghanistan; so all of our active troops are now receiving training to be miners... Barry Soetoro always promised his wife a huge diamond, just like George Bush took Sadam Huesein's gun... Arizona and America are the last thing on the agenda at the moment... well except for passing laws to take our guns, and passing laws to kill the internet. Right now the American people are the "Inconvenient Truth".

i do not think they are going to be showing up anytime soon.
i think obama has no intentions of looking out for innocent americans being killed by illegals.

Originally Posted by jamesw62

i do not think they are going to be showing up anytime soon.
i think obama has no intentions of looking out for innocent americans being killed by illegals.

As I said in another posting... American citizens are the real Inconvenient Truth ..... Obama and his Hugo Chavez staff can't get rid of us fast enough in their opinion.

Here are some reasons why:

http://www.borderaction.org/web/index.p ... 80&lang=en

http://immigrantsandiego.org/?p=674

http://www.workers.org/2010/us/indigenous_0603/

http://oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com/20 ... -from.html

The Arizona tribes know very well about boundaries. There are many places I cannot go because they have closed them off to "whites," "colonialists," "Europeans," "Anglos" etc.

Example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohokam_Pi ... l_Monument

There are many more.

The tribes are not being good neighbors. The tribes do not know about job loss. Their living expenses and healthcare are paid for in perpetuity. Many people have ranted about this in years past - maybe they have a point.

I notice that the tribes can throw lots of racism out and then turn around and accuse everybody of racism against them even when that is not the case. I know that racism is a horrible thing. Doing this research about the tribes has taken me back to a memory from many years ago - different decade, different state. I was invited to a poetry reading at the local women's center. So I tried it. Among the poets was a Native American woman who had traveled a long way to be recognized for her poetry. When it was her turn to read from her work she had to be stopped because her poem was a long rant against Jews. She had never met a Jew - well she had but she did not know it. She did not know that almost everybody around her was a Jew. She did not know that the home that she was being hosted at was the home of a Jew. Yet she felt safe and totally OK to write a long hate poem against Jews. Wow. I thought it was an isolated incident until I started reading the tribal sites and forums. 35 years later and nothing has changed because from the shelter of the reservation they still express Jew-hatred while ranting at us about our border goals as race-hatred.

More about our neighbors who want to keep open borders:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/3538344

If you go to http://oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com/20 ... -from.html - and watch the second video the speaker reads from their legal paperwork - (treaty? tribal agreement with federal government?) He states that they have the right to do business across the border no questions asked. They are angry that they are now being asked - they state that they think it is because they are brown.

Duh, maybe we don't want the drugs coming in?

Originally Posted by sarum

The tribes are not being good neighbors. The tribes do not know about job loss. Their living expenses and healthcare are paid for in perpetuity. Many people have ranted about this in years past - maybe they have a point.

As a Native American I take exception to this comment! I am from the Northern border tribes, and only have friends on the Southern border. But I can tell you they know all too well about job loss. Most of them have never had the opportunities in the first damn place.

Tell me Sarum... have you ever been to one of the Reservations? Do you consider not having running water, not having potable water ( plain old drinking water) "being taken care of in perpetuity"?

I notice that the tribes can throw lots of racism out and then turn around and accuse everybody of racism against them even when that is not the case. I know that racism is a horrible thing.

We are relegated to small pieces of land, we were told this was OUR land. But just like everything else it's our land when it's convenient. Mining Companies are destroying the land belonging to the Navajo, they get rich and the Navajo are left for slow deaths to claim them.

I've read your posts here and I understand your worry, but tell me... Have YOU been a good neighbor in the past? You have NO idea what it is to fight the prejudice against Indians. People like you like to point out what is wrong ( to your perception), but you have never walked a mile in our shoes.

You will have to wait for an answer from the White House because Obama and Viden were out playing golf this weekend. I am sure they are on top of this promise just like they are on top of the BP oil spill.

nomas, I can never walk a mile in your shoes. I have been a good friend to NDNs. I have many times been invited to events where I was the only non-NDN. I have also been accused of things that I did not do just because I was the outsider. I have always been too polite to ask directly but I have observed in years past that some people are angry about the entitlements that Native Americans get and maybe it is none of my business, but maybe it is. Personally I think it is my business when the government is broke and we keep giving and giving and some people still suffer so greatly perhaps with no potable water - then instead of keeping putting the burden back on the "white man" in perpetuity there needs to be some accountability within the tribe for allocation of resources, particularly when the tribe is known to be very wealthy or the most wealthy. I am aware of problems in tribal governments as having been told to me by members and how some people are chronically left out and I do support NDN business and becoming self-sufficient as well as returning to native foods for health.

Just the other day I was told verbally by my husband (who is recognized and loved by all tribal peoples despite not having any membership or number) that he heard on the radio that the City of Glendale is fighting the proposed NDN casino because a Mexican drug cartel is financing the whole operation. Google was not my friend. I choose to try to verify truth from rumor as much as I can and even if I did see it in writing does not mean it is truth. However, the sentiment among ourselves and people we know is to support the tribe (even though in this particular case it will not honor the treaty and create jobs for the tribe - just income) and we try to see fully both sides before giving our support but the City does have some valid points and we already are living with the terror from the illegal situation and do not wish to make it worse. The neighborhood where this is taking place is not a nice one. It is a mixed race neighborhood full of hate and prejudice and strange behaviors where the kids try to enforce their gang ideas even in the grade school. Do not be deceived by the newer homes with 2-story entryways.

I am very disappointed in the Native American support for open borders because this whole not recognizing borders thing is only supposed to go one way. There are plenty of places on NDN land that I would like to go to but they are closed off to me even when they are designated National Monuments. So the tribes themselves are very strict on their borders and I respect that. I do not insist to go. I do not use people that I know to get me there despite their laws. Let us also protect ourselves with our borders and receive the support of the Native Americans whose borders we honor as well.

Not only do the Native tribes within the US protect their boundaries, the Native tribes elsewhere also do:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... wD9GAL5D80

So I have been posting this and laughing because I am weary of the twisted logic that only goes one way or screams of racism, the hypocrisy about no borders and all the rest of it. In my house we know all about getting pulled over weekly for DWB, year after year after year. Yes it is tedious. It is insulting. We are tired of it as well. But thanks to being well traveled due to military service we also know that checking papers is routine in many nations around the world, even those that are our allies and we do support SB1070 because we live and suffer with the criminality and hate that is going on in our community and it is a part of stopping it.

I am a mixed race person. I have been fighting prejudice from all sides all of my life. Due to my mixed lineage there is NO community for me. There is no homeland for me, no reservation, no family land, no government that represents me, no financial or legal aid for me. As a matter of fact, in my personal case our federal government has taken everything that my family ever worked for, leaving us in poverty while celebrating my ancestors and making money off my heritage. Perhaps all of this is worse than those who have a reservation to retreat to, a Heard museum to sell their work from and ancestral lands to enjoy surrounded by language and culture that is reassuring and familiar.

Oh, as far as not having had the opportunity in the first place? My Apache room-mate was given job after job after job with wonderful companies where I could not even get my foot in the door because I am too light. She did not appreciate it. Any one of those jobs I would have grabbed and slavishly hung onto for dear life and still be there decades later but she would work a few days and then blow it. She had bona fides due to coloration and tribal membership where all she had to do was show up and she got it. That kind of in-your-face crap has alienated lots of us who have NEVER had the same opportunity. But she is the one who resorts to crying racist when she loses the job because she decided to do something else.

Yet even that I understand in a way. I have a half-sister with a lot more blood than me and she does think very different and now in the latter part of life I am coming to believe that many thought patterns are hereditary rather than learned and that she truly is mostly NDN in the way that she thinks.