Wednesday, May 17, 2006

 

Summer Camp Relocated to Limit Relocations


While there appears to be some criticism of the POTUS plan to deploy 6,000 National Guard soldiers to the Mexican border, a little analysis will show the brilliance of the president's speech. First, like the Bush tax cuts, you shouldn't count the whole thing if the initial commitment doesn't extend very far. While it will be 6,000 the first year, it reduces to 3000 the second year. Second, each soldier will only do 3 weeks, that is, his regular 2 week summer camp obligation, plus a week to allow for coming and going and so forth. Each participant reports to his regular post, and then gets portal to portal credit for time on the bus to the border. It looks like there will be little breaks for the border patrol in between sets, since if you try to get the next set there before removing the last set, somebody is going to go over the limit. If the Mexicans flock to these swim sessions, it will just prove the effectiveness of the plan, as it is easier if you know when they are coming.

Even more important, this is just an expansion of the current program. We have had about 400 NG troops along the border since 1989. Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the NG Bureau, said the new mission would be "substantially similar" to the existing one, but noted that the size of the force would be greater. Maj. Gen. Charles G. Rodriguez, who handles the Guard in Texas, clarified the mission: "We are not in the business of detaining or apprehending or catching anybody", explaining that the Guard provides administrative support and analysis assistance to the Border Patrol. On occasion, he said, the soldiers also assist with surveillance, and "there are times when our analysts go a terrain walk with the Border Patrol."

The individual troopers are reported to view this plan a significant improvement over last year, as the 20,000 analysts in Iraq were not accorded portal to portal time.

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