Bordering on Insanity

Let's try to divorce this discussion from the pros and cons of the Iraq "surge", National Intelligence Estimates, and presidential politics, etc. Okay? Just for a minute...

I've just watched two of the Sunday morning talk shows where I was treated to a potpourri of politicos, poohbahs and pundits.

Several times I heard people (mostly Democrats today, but also a Republican and some commentators) who want to "re-deploy" the U.S. troops in Iraq to different missions. The most popular place to re-deploy them -- according to these armchair generals -- is to the Iraqi borders to protect those borders from insurgents and others who want to come in and cause trouble.

What?!

Let me get this straight. It's okay to use the U.S. military to protect the borders of a foreign country but it is not okay to protect the borders of the United States? I mean, some of the same people I heard advocate this re-deployment today, I have heard expressing severe skepticism about our own border security, several of them even intimating that enforcing our own border was somehow almost racist.

It's probably a legitimate mission to protect the Iraq borders and, given all the bad alternatives, I'd support it. But I'm not in favor of treating our own border as any less important. Does anybody seriously think we should?

A border is a border. If it exists, and it's considered legitimate, then people should only come across it with permission whether it's somebody else's border or your own. At least that's my position, for what it's worth...