Thread: Not The National Guard Troops Fault

America's guarded response

By Dimitri Vassilaros
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, January 12, 2007


National Guard troops are not cowards. It is self-evident. But published reports racing through cyberspace about a controversial incident last week along the Mexican border suggest otherwise.
Assuming the worst about our front-line protectors is easy given the unwillingness of the Bush administration to defend America's borders.

It's understandable but inexcusable. And yet easily correctable just by helping the Border Patrol patrol and the National Guard guard, assuming President George W. Bush believes America belongs to Americans.

An Entry Identification Team of the U.S. Border Patrol, composed of four guardsmen with loaded M-16 rifles, was stationed in a remote area of Arizona. Four armed men from Mexico were spotted near its post, about a quarter mile from the border. The guardsmen were not wimps, lily-livered or overrun. They did not turn tail, bug out, flee in fear or lose control of their bladders.

They obeyed the standing order to fall back to a safe position and report the incident. The Border Patrol quickly responded with air and ground units. By then, however, the foreign invaders decided to hot-foot it back to Mexico.

What does it say about an administration that's seemingly indifferent to the 746 assaults in 2006 on our border protectors (including 725 along the Mexican border) with 41 involving firearms?

What does it say when this republic refuses to stand its ground or when Mr. Bush pardons 16 criminals including five drug dealers at Christmastime but has not pardoned U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean?

Each faces more than a decade of hard time in prison because the Mexican drug dealer they had been pursuing and shot in the buttocks was given immunity by the U.S. government to testify against them.

What's next? Will the Mexican peso replace the U.S. dollar in America?

Oh, wait a minute, that's already happening.

Pizza Patrón, a Dallas-based chain of 59 stores that uses the slogan "Mas Pizza. Menos Dinero," now accepts the Mexican peso as well as the Yankee dollar.

"We're trying to reach out to our core customer," said company president Antonio Swad. "We know they come back (from Mexico) and have pesos left over. We want to be a convenient place for them to spend their pesos."

The in-store displays feature the Mexican flag and the greeting "Bienvenido Paisano" (welcome countrymen). "Pizza por Pesos" is the trademark peso program name.

Too bad Canadian quarters aren't that desirable.

Clearly, Mr. Bush is hellbent on merging Mexico with America. Why else intimidate Border Patrol agents, handcuff the National Guard, label the Minuteman Project volunteers as vigilantes, endorse Social Security benefits for illegals, permit banks to lend to illegals and, a few days before Election Day, authorize the construction of 700 miles of security fencing along the border but not appropriate money to build it?

Bush refuses to back down in Iraq and Afghanistan but refuses to back up those guarding America. Maybe God ordered him to do it. Or maybe Dubya wants to ensure that no one ever again can say his dad was the most disappointing Republican president since Herbert Hoover.

Is it too late to start an Internet rumor that Osama bin Laden is holed up just south of the Rio Grande?

Dimitri Vassilaros is a Trib editorial page columnist. His column appears Sundays, Mondays and Fridays. Call him at 412-380-5637. E-mail him at dvassilaros@tribweb.com.



http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... 88153.html

Is it too late to start an Internet rumor that Osama bin Laden is holed up just south of the Rio Grande?

It would be the safest place in the world for him to hide...he could walk up to the border packing an AK-47 and per orders, our military would run.