Americans have been blessed with a military that has defended our nation from foreign aggressors since the very beginning — initially with a group of patriot volunteers and now with the best trained and equipped forces in the world.
We are also blessed with a number of groups of law enforcement officers and agents that are protecting us here at home and they share a similar history.
We are indebted to both groups for the level of security that has allowed all Americans to prosper to the levels that we have achieved today. Although both groups are peacekeepers and protectors, and despite the fact that both groups wear uniforms and carry weapons, their roles and responsibilities are entirely different. Further, their training, use-of-force and a wide variety of rules and regulations are vastly different.
In response to an act-of-war situation, we probably would not want to send a police department to a foreign land. Conversely, sending an Army to handle a police action is probably not a good idea or at least a good use of resources.
This brings me to my concern for putting the military on the U.S. borders to handle the immigration issue that faces our nation. It’s a bad idea.
Stopping illegal entry, smuggling, and human/drug trafficking across our borders is a police action and should be handled as one. We are not at war with our bordering nations. We are jointly addressing illegal activities on both sides of our borders.
Further, our military forces are fighting two wars in two countries. To overload and stretch them even further by handing them the mission of protecting our borders here at home is going to pushing them to the breaking point.
When our solders are here at home, let us all allow them to enjoy their families before returning to the wars abroad. Our federal, state, and local police organizations can protect our homeland. Let’s resource the military and law enforcement organizations properly and let’s keep missions clear, with clear lines of authority, as they were set forth by our forefathers when they established this great nation.
