Saturday, March 10, 2007
Feel the Surge
by Jeremy Weidenhof | 03/10/2007


Americans in Iraq aren’t the only ones “surging” right now.

Violence along the U.S.-Mexico border is undergoing what U.S. law-enforcement authorities call “an unprecedented surge,” some of it fueled by weapons and ammunition purchased or stolen in the United States.

The laundry list of weapons is amazing.

Last month, Mexican military officials in Matamoros, just south of Brownsville, Texas, stopped a tractor-trailer containing weapons and ammunition, along with a pickup truck fitted with armor and bulletproof glass.

The weapons included 18 M-16 assault rifles, one equipped with an M-203 40mm grenade launcher. Also seized were several M-4 carbines, 17 handguns of various calibers, 200 magazines for different weapons, 8,000 rounds of ammunition, assault vests and other military accessories.

But wait, there’s more.

A task force led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also seized two completed improvised explosive devices, materials for making 33 more, 300 primers, 1,280 rounds of ammunition, five grenades, nine pipes with end caps, 26 grenade triggers, 31 grenade spoons, 40 grenade pins, 19 black powder casings, a silencer and cash during raids in Laredo, Texas, last month.

And into the breach we throw a neglected Border Patrol, an agency not given serious tools for the job, because the job is not taken seriously by our “leaders.”

[T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council] said assaults against Border Patrol agents have more than doubled over the past two years, mainly by drug cartels “far more inclined to utilize violence as a means of achieving their goal of successfully smuggling contraband and people.”

In 1915-16 Mexican bandit and revolutionary Pancho Villa attacked and killed Americans in both Mexico and the U.S. The violence prompted President Wilson to send troops to protect the border region. Today we have trafficking in weapons, humans, drugs, and related violence along our border with Mexico yet next to nothing is done about it. Why? Is it Greed? Incompetence? Stupidity? Corruption?

Our nation is in danger but still we slumber. The mind reels.

http://lonestartimes.com/2007/03/10/feel-the-surge/
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People are leaving a lot of comments after the article too.