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May 15, 2006
National Guard versus Border Patroil
So why is Bush refusing to fund more border patrol agents, yet calling to send the national guard down to the border?
Yes, Bush loves to militarize every situation, but another obvious answer is that it's a further substitution of non-union national guard members, directly under political control, for unionized border patrol workers. Unionized government workers actually challenge the administration on incompetence by the Homeland Security leadership, so the Bushies would far prefer "yes sir" military folks.
But that's actually the reason America has traditionally been uncomfortable with the military being used for direct policing functions. Frontline soldiers are rightly trained to respect the chain of command, a necessity in military combat, but a less desirable trait in domestic situations where dissent on the ground by rank-and-file civilian police is often a check on incompetent leadership.
Posted by Nathan at May 15, 2006 06:03 PM
