Will “Disgruntled Military Veterans” Defend The Southern Border?

By Thomas Martel

04/14/2015

Troops who are allowed to guard the border with Mexico — they're in the Mexican Army.

Mexican sources report an ISIS camp on our southern border. A suspected Russian intelligence asset, a Shiite Muslim formerly part of the Iraqi Army, was recently caught trying to cross [Exclusive: Iraqi Caught Crossing US-Mexico Border Was Military Trainer and Spoke Fluent Russian, by Brandon Darby, Breitbart, April 7, 2015] But the Pentagon seems more focused on fighting “sexual assault” (real and imagined) than protecting the country. American veterans are talking about doing the job.

A Special Forces veteran has detailed a thoughtful and feasible plan to militarize the southern border. Writing in the popular military blog SOFREP, Green Beret vet Loren Schofield explained in depth his plan to secure the border [A Green Beret’s Solution To Protecting The Southern Border, by Loren Schofield, July 27, 2014]

Schofield’s plan includes

• military surveillance of the border;
• an aggressive roundup of illegals;
• placement in temporary camps, and
• deportation via bus and train to Mexico’s southern border, to “make it much more difficult for them to make their way back to the U.S./Mexico border.”

[T]his really is an invasion of the United States, and the illegal aliens are to be considered a hostile military force, and, due to that fact, the ROEs [Rules Of Engagement] for these units working on the border will be changed to allow shooting back at any element that threatens U.S. forces or citizens. They would be allowed to return fire, even if the hostile element is firing from the Mexico side of the border. [Cartels suspected as high-caliber gunfire sends Border Patrol scrambling on Rio Grande, by Jana Winter, FoxNews, July 20, 2014] (Link in original)

Why don’t we hear proposals like this from our politicians — or from active duty military personnel?

Of course, there are rules limiting service members’ expression of opinion on partisan issues. But that’s not the main reason the active duty military is (mostly) silent on our border crisis — it’s more significantly because the Obama Department of Defense is now just another anti-white bureaucracy.

The increasingly politicized and diverse officer corps is unlikely to produce any bold leadership that will call for assertive policy on the border. Given a bad economy, bootlicking is pervasive, since even military bureaucrats want to hold onto their jobs. With the military becoming an elaborate welfare state for wayward young people, including single mothers, one wonders whether the U.S. military has a sufficient martial spirit.

Nonetheless, the plurality of military personnel describe themselves as “conservative” or “very conservative.” [Military no less conservative, but less Republican, survey finds, by Shuan Waterman, Washington Times, March 25, 2013]. And the American public heavily supports sending the military to the southern border: 69 percent, according to a Rasmussen poll, favor use of the U.S. military to secure our country. [69% Favor Use of U.S. Military on Border to Keep Mexican Drug Violence Out, April 8, 2013].

Retired officers could supply leadership. Retired Major General Paul E. Vallely (founder of Stand Up America) made securing the border one of his organization’s priorities. Gen. Vallely last year called “for an immediate 45-day closure of the entire southern border with access to commercial enterprises only” [The Southern Border — Time to Boldly Lead, by Paul E. Vallely, Stand Up America, July 9, 2014]

As General Vallely noted, the National Guard, which can be called up quickly and is already trained for civil-military missions, plays an important role. “As a starter, the governors of California, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico must employ the National Guard in each state to completely shut the state borders down immediately,” he wrote.

As for the active duty military’s role, Gen. Vallely advocates “a 20KM deep ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) Operational ‘no-go zone’ for the entire length of the Mexican border with the US.” He advocates using real military units to safeguard the porous and lawless border, proposing that “[i]n major cities along the border in Mexico, armored American units should be deployed with sizable infantry units to act on ‘no-go zone’ infringement.”

This could happen, and it has worked before. Recall that the man who led Operation Wetback was retired Gen. Joseph “Jumpin’ Joe” Swing. Without a doubt, there are many retired officers, who devoted themselves to this nation, who would enthusiastically take charge of an effort to secure our southern border.

VDARE readers know that immigration is a national security issue. The situation has become so awful that Investor’s Business Daily is running articles and editorials with titles like “Muslim Immigration Poses Serious National Security Threat” and “Massive Muslim Immigration Was Mad, French Learning” [by Paul Sperry, February 19, 2015; IBD Editorial, January 7, 2015]

But Washington continues the psychotic policy of mass immigration, with a significant share of our utterly foreign population hailing from Muslim nations. Even the nonviolent immigrants, when they enter illegally, are unwanted infiltrators who have violated our sovereignty.

The question is political will. With a jellyfish like John Boehner in charge of the Republican Congress, nothing can be expected from the political process. In this environment of political betrayal and corruption, leadership needs to come from a different source.

As Schofield rightly says, “If the Federal Government will not, or cannot, enforce a law, it is appropriate for the State to take over that duty. If the State cannot, or refuses, it is appropriate and Constitutional for the People to do it themselves.” He points out that, for strategic and cultural reasons, Texas probably has to step up first. [A Green Beret’s Solution to Protecting the Southern Border Pt 2: TEXAS, SOFREP, August 7, 2014.].

States, using the National Guard, could start protecting our border. Also, militias and citizen patrols could set a dramatic example of the public’s will to see our border secured. If the people began doing the federal government’s job, that may just trigger the reforms needed to finally set America on the right path.

Hence the Obama DHS’s nervous talk about radicalized returning vets. It knows that what it called “disgruntled military veterans” are exactly the type of Americans who might stand up and speak out.

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