Much is said about Donald Trump’s border wall. It seems everyone has an opinion as to the viability or usefulness of such a wall or fence.
Anyone who was ever in the military and stationed on a secure base knows walls (or fences take your pick) work, against ground forces, always have always will. When the facts are out all argument against a wall is fruitless. With all the modern tech gadgets and/or detection devices we have today anyone up to date must know it is possible to make a wall work with 99 or 100% effectiveness. Sensors also make it impossible to tunnel without detection. Even if the tunnel is already built it is impossible to travel in it without detection. It depends on how serious one is in securing the area. The wall Israel built is working fine. Is it the only solution needed? Of course not, personnel are also needed to guarantee the wall is not breached in any way. We have known how to build a secure wall/fence for several decades.
During the 60’s LBJ declared a war on drugs. Threw money at it and never really did anything other than that. It failed badly much like his war on poverty failed. It failed because it was a half hearted effort to quell the importation of drugs into the USA. Since that time America has spent “trillions” trying to stop drugs without a wall. It has failed miserably and will continue to fail unless a wall/fence is put in place along with all the other necessities to “make” it work.
Thousands of people, mostly young impressionable children, die each year because of drugs brought into this country across the southern border. Everyone however, that is against the wall, seems to think it is just to stop illegal aliens it is not. That is not the only justification for the wall. However, stopping them will make many things better here, including but not limited to, employment or the lack of available jobs along with higher wages for many jobs. Supply and demand works in labor as well as commodities.
Innocent lives are lost every year due to criminal aliens. Even more are lost to drugs and violence instigated by drugs and drug money. Many, if not most, of the shooting deaths in Chicago, as well as many other cities, are drug or drug gang related. We have a catastrophic situation here in America that seems to be ignored by the general population. However, ignoring it is not solving it and unless it is confronted boldly and with purpose it cannot ever be solved. And will “never” go away.
In the final analysis how well a wall/fence works is determined by those who build it and how well they want it to work.
Donald (Don) Bitler is a retired pilot, disabled veteran, published author and a fifty-plus year resident of Arizona, currently Scottsdale.
