Needed: a troop surge in Tucson

I lived in Tucson, Arizona, for three years. No compelling reason. It was by choice, even though I knew the employment opportunities there weren't great (and that turned out to be too right). I liked the landscape, the Spanish and Pueblo style architecture, and the general laid-back friendliness of the people.

Today, thanks to our criminally irresponsible president and politicians who collude with him, Tucson is about to become a war zone, according to one local observer.

Northern Mexico is in a state of war. Who is fighting? That’s hard to say. Officially, it is the drug- and people-traffickers against each other and the government. But in Mexico, you can’t tell the players even with a program. You cannot assume the police or the Army are loyal to their commands. Many are working on their own. …

It is not too much to say there is a war going on right across the border. It’s not a hot war with firefights all the time. It is not a cold war, either, with posturing and press releases. Let’s call it a warm war. Violence breaks out from time to time for reasons unknown to us, but completely unpredictable.

And here’s the part you don’t want to hear. Violence has spread across the border and has resulted in several deaths of Americans residents and visitors. Most such crimes are reported as isolated incidents. But the violence in northern Mexico is not stopping at the border. It’s headed this way and a lot of Tucsonans know it.

Are these the words of some militiaman crank? I wish. But in fact they were published in — are you ready for this? — Inside Tucson Business. That's right; a business newspaper. Not the sort of forum where you find wild-eyed fanatics spewing paranoia.

The writer, Lionel Waxman, wants his readers to face reality.

You can’t learn about it in most media, but the whispers around town are people saying they are thinking of getting out. It looks like war and it’s coming here. No government has acted to protect Americans living in Southern Arizona. Our federal government is in full collapse as far as the southern border is concerned. All we get from them is talk. The only action we see is toward integrating Mexico into the U.S. and Canada.

What will it mean when the border is actually abandoned and anybody is free to enter without inspection? It will mean that Southern Arizona, specifically Tucson, could become like Cananea [where five policemen and two residents were assassinated] and other parts of northern Mexico. Violence will overtake local police. State and federal authorities will look the other way. …

The federal government should put troops on the border to defend the United States and its citizens. The troops should be given orders to use as much force as necessary to accomplish that task. No soldiers should be detailed to do paperwork and forbidden to fire on violators. This is another war and if we don’t act like it, we will lose this one too.

This war isn’t on the other side of the world. This is for our homes, our homes, our homes.

If you don't happen to live near the Mexican border, you have no reason to be complacent.

Once George W. Bush and his devil-spawned collaborators get their precious immigration "reform" bill passed, there will be no border, and Mexico — in all its corruption, violence, and poverty — will overflow. A huge area of Los Angeles has already been lost to Mexican gang warfare. You might still keep the war from where you live, but only if you spike the plans of Bush, Kennedy, and the rest of the amnesty pushers. There isn't much time left.

Your move.