There it was in the Saturday edition of the USA Today in black and white text on my screen: "When possible, agents are to seek cover or move back out of the immediate area of danger."
It was one of the new policies and tighter restrictions our Homeland Security Department is putting on our southern border.
"When possible, agents are to seek cover or move back out of the immediate area of danger."
Shockingly (or not) the administration is bringing its policy from that successful night on the town in Benghazi to our own borders. You like smaller numbers of military in active duty through a downsized fighting force? Hey, here's a winner, how 'bout we neuter the effectiveness of those meanies trying to protect our citizens living on the American side of the U.S.-Mexico line?
So if the cartels, the drug runners, gangs, human traffickers, and of course Eric Holder and his fast but furious gun runners decide to become aggressive and launch rocks or cars at our border patrol, the administration has now explicitly said to run for cover.
The new policy is being couched in this idea that our Border Patrol has been too rough, too aggressive, and too quick to use force when attempting to curtail illegal shipments of criminals, drugs, humans, and terrorists over our borders. The thinking has been that it's imposing too much upon the people who are not allowed to be here, to step in front of their vehicle and demand that they stop.
Now admittedly not all of the Border Patrol use of force in recent years has stopped the really horrible guys exclusively. Yes there have been one or two cases of mistaken identity when force was applied.
But that problem wouldn't exist in the first place if the people looking to not get shot weren't taking the same routes across our southern border as the cartels, gangs, traffickers, and terrorists. It's easy to get them confused when ALL of them are breaking the law to begin with. We even have nicely-painted-sign-placarded-gates where people can come across and risk not even being sent to a jail--unlike our Marines headed the other way.
Then of course we add to the confusion by letting our Justice Department hand over high-powered weapons to the same cartels, gangs, traffickers, and terrorists and trick ourselves into "thinking" we can track them back across the border. And that theory was still not a complete epic fail until border patrol officers started ending up dead on our borders in shoot outs with violent armed gangs using the guns we let them walk with.
Still not content, the administration has instituted a no-tasering policy as well.
Do you know how many actual cases the administration studied to come up with these new policies of proactive cowardice? According to the USA Today--roughly 25.
Lastly--in an attempt to look as completely feckless as possible--the administration made sure it sent out press releases, made public statements, and patted itself on the back in the press about the new "direction" of border security.
For the last decade or more residents in southern New Mexico, Arizona, and to a lesser degree California and Texas have been inundated with border violence that has raped their children, stolen their families’ land, life, and work, and more or less created some zones of complete lawless anarchy.
Crowing about how the Border Patrol will be diving for cover when a 1972 Chevy Silverado comes barricading through a border crossing will increase or lessen the fears our fellow American citizens already live with in that region?
I know that it is more important to this president that he make America look as weak as they possibly can be in the eyes of the watching world. But this kind of public pronouncement of a policy that weakens border security--taking tools, opportunity, and rationale out of the equation--is inviting invasion by those who would wish us harm and more often than not figure out a way to follow through on it.
I know that staying up all night and helping our boys run to the fight and save the life of an ambassador who was caught under fire in Libya would've prevented him having his beauty rest for his Vegas fundraiser the next day.
I know that making a three minute phone call to the Mexican authorities to get our Marine out of the grubby mitts of the Tijuana posse was too much for his already packed golf schedule.
Now I know that if El General, El Profe, or El Gori II decide to turn lower Arizona into their version of Afghani training camps, the administration will see to it that they're comfy!