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May 2, 2005
Borders, Gangs and War
A piece in today's LA Times, This Land Is Whose Land? is written by Congressmen Tom Tancredo of Colorado's Sixth District. The legislator says that
. . . on Nov. 2, a political earthquake occurred when Arizona voters approved Proposition 200, which denies state welfare benefits to illegal aliens and strengthens voter registration requirements. Forty-seven percent of Latino voters and 59% of Latino Republicans voted for Proposition 200.He goes on to say thatThese figures have liberated Republicans to speak candidly about immigration control without fearing the "race card." Opponents will still try to use it, but it rings hollow. In the words of Lyndon B. Johnson, "That dog won't hunt."
there is now a broad consensus in Congress that border security must be given a high priority. We cannot think seriously about legalizing millions of new "temporary workers" until we are able to control our borders and know who is entering our country and who is leaving.The school of theorists of fourth generational war, often quick to sound a death knell for the state system, frequently draws attention to the ease with which non-state actors might transit our southern border. They are not alone in this regard, but they are usually much more compelling in the scenarios they imagine.
William Lind, a founder of this school of thought, takes the issue up in his latest piece, More on Gangs & Guerillas vs. the State.
Meanwhile, drug smugglers and guerrilla forces like the FARC work together more easily than states do. The state system is old, creaky, formalistic and slow. Drug dealing and guerrilla warfare represent a free market, where deals happen fast. Several years ago, a Marine friend went down to Bolivia as part of the U.S. counter-drug effort. He observed that the drug traffickers went through Boyd Cycle or OODA Loop six times in the time it took us to go through it once. When I relayed that to Colonel Boyd, he said, “Then we’re not even in the game.”Note Lind's quick dismissal of state−based action. His is not so much a call to action, as a lament that state-centered policies are doomed to be hopelessly fruitless. Yet if Congressman Tancredo has his way, the state will make more and more robust efforts to police its border . . .Not surprisingly, the FARC and others find they can use the drug trade for political ends. The Washington Times piece noted,
But the (State Department) report did not mention FARC’s recent cultivation of ties with leftist rebels in Paraguay …Colombian Marxists infiltrating Paraguay beyond the drug trade made headlines in February when former presidential daughter Cecilia Cubas was found dead after being held captive for more than two months.How long will it be before al Qaeda and other Islamic non-state forces make their own alliances with the drug gangs and people smugglers who are experts in getting across America’s southern border? Or use the excellent distribution systems the drug gangs have throughout the United States to smuggle something with a bigger bang than the best cocaine?Just as we see states coming together around the world against the non-state forces of the Fourth Generation, so those non-state forces will also come together in multi-faceted alliances. The difference is likely to be that they will do it faster and better. And, they will use states’ preoccupation with the state system like a matador’s cape, to dazzle and distract while they proceed with the real business of war.
See Bill Roggio's earlier piece on this issue: The Fourth Rail: Minutemen and the Border War
UPDATE: I'm tracking back to Mudville Gazette.
Posted by Chester at May 2, 2005 11:26 PM
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