Obama to Send Up to 1,200 Troops to Mexico Border

[rug]

LOS ANGELES — President Obama will send up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the Southwest border and seek increased spending on law enforcement there to combat drug smuggling after demands from Republican and Democratic lawmakers that border security be tightened.

The decision was disclosed by a Democratic lawmaker and confirmed by administration officials after Mr. Obama met on Tuesday with Republican senators, several of whom have demanded that troops be placed at the border. The lawmakers learned of the plan after the meeting.

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The troops will be stationed in the four border states for a year, White House officials said. It is not certain when they will arrive, the officials said.


* * * *

From 2006 to 2008, President George W. Bush made a larger deployment of Guard troops under a program called Operation Jump Start. At its peak, 6,000 Guard troops at the border helped build roads and fences in addition to backing up law enforcement officers.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/us/26border.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fworld%2Findex.jsonp

[tekisui]

1. I wonder if they will get dragged into the Mexican drug war.

[Cant trust em]

4. I figured that this was what it was for.

At least to defend (if that's the right word) Southern Texas and Arizona from these cross border raids that I keep hearing about.

[Webster Green]

2. More phony drug war bullshit?

Legalize it.

Idiots!

[BlueIris]

23. There's always room for more phony war. nt

[QC]

3. You know, we really hated it when GWB talked about militarizing the border,

but for some reason I think this will be considered OK.

[Cant trust em]

5. It's not.

A lot of people are really pissed based on this morning's threads.

[QC]

9. It's encouraging to hear that.

Sometimes it seems that everything that used to be bad is now good. I get confused.

[tavalon]

25. That was last month or maybe the month before

People are seeing what's behind the curtain and while there is still a lot of shock and even kneejerk support, it's waning. I don't know what comes next.

[burnsei sensei]

14. I don't like it at all.

To militarize the border does nothing but endangers the soldiers we send there.
This is a futile step-- like attacking a mosquito with a sledgehammer.
It looks stupid, and it is.

[burnsei sensei]

6. I'm just remembering the

story yesterday of the super-potent heroin coming from Central and South America. Maybe this is a response to that danger.

[EFerrari]

8. Danger to Company run Afghan drug trade, maybe. n/t

[burnsei sensei]

10. The heroin I heard described in the story

yesterday was really scary stuff. It was so dangerous that people had been found lying dead with the needles still in their veins. A preparation that lethal is one the government would be feverish to control as closely as possible.
And if it ever were cultivated and processed in the Hindu Kush? I shudder to think of it.

[Webster Green]

11. A little Hindu Kush opium would make my day.

Used to be able to get black Afghani hash with opium mixed in. Oh my! :smoke:

[burnsei sensei]

13. It used to make my brother's day too.

And then it made every one of his days.
For years, he was addicted to heroin. He had to be really broken down in every sense of the word before he would show himself to us.
I never knew him before he was in recovery.

[Webster Green]

16. Sorry to hear that.

It is very powerful and compelling, since it feels so good. No fun once you're strung. I've been there as well.

I hope he's OK now. :hi:

[burnsei sensei]

26. He is recovered.

I believe meditation and Buddhism helped.
He does say that it's a struggle all the time, though.

[reggie the dog]

21. i just do up the black afghan, these days there is no opium in it

that i have noticed. and thankfully too because i want cannabis not opiates

[Flaneur]

17. Check out this link for a critique of the sensational, ill-informed AP story.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maia-szalavitz/ap-thinks-heroins-got-a-b_b_588502.html

[reggie the dog]

22. good at least someone else understands

plus my friends sister who is a senior in high school in a middle class white suburb says many kids are doing heroin because you get bags for 5 dollars and you get high for longer than you do off of 5 dollars of weed..... so we told her we would give her some free weed if she wanted and we were happy to hear that she doesnt even drink alcohol much less use drugs...

[reggie the dog]

20. they grow lots of poppies int he hindu kush mountains

they just dont refine it so much and sell it as black tar heroin, now central american is deciding to refine it to "china white" sort of yellowish powder quality, which does not need to be shot, you can snort it... nothing new just what is new is more stronger stuff making it up. we have had the powder heroin in chicago for at lest 10 years from what I have seen.

[reggie the dog]

19. strong heroin is actually better

because it is smoked and snorted not shot, so less AIDS happens, if only it was dose labled so people would not od on it....

[Sebastian Doyle]

7. Just legalize the fucking drugs already

Oh right... can't do that because then the Bush Crime Family's CIA would have no way to fund their black ops.

Can't fucking have that, can we? :eyes:

Not to mention the only cheap labor source even cheaper than "illegal aliens", prison labor. Which would all but disappear without bullshit drug convictions.

[rurallib]

12. my first reaction was that he was caving to the RW echo chamber once more

I know not whether it is needed etc. Seems like every time they squeak Obama eventually delivers something to them.

[QC]

15. That's always a pretty safe assumption to make.

It is far more productive to be the president's adversary than his ally.

[reggie the dog]

18. yet marijuana is cheaper today

than it was ten years ago and the quality is better, same goes for heroin and coke i have been told...

[tavalon]

24. More bipartisanship?

Thanks for nothing, dude.