Border wall world history 101 - echo opinion from California

An echo opinion letter published in The Fresno Bee

Donald Trump promised a border wall and Mexico was going to pay for it.  HELLO? Who will pay for it? Instead, the cost of the useless border wall will be paid by cutting middle class safety net programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, children's health CHIP and important social services. #Cruel_Donald_Trump

Actually, history proves that border walls are an ineffective protection for cities or countries.

In approximately 1300 BC, the Spartans were able to bypass the walls of Troy to burn, sack and loot the city.

In Rome’s Third Servile War,(73 -71 BC) the Roman army had Spartacus’ forces bottled up on the tip of Italy, so they built a wall to contain the rebels. Spartacus not only escaped, but took his army with him and fought additional battles with the Romans.

Masada was a walled fortress on the top of a mountain. In 66 AD Jewish rebels took the fortress away for the Romans and in 73 AD the Romans breached the wall and re-took the fortress. All of the Jews committed suicide rather than be captured by the Romans.

According to historians, Hadrian’s Wall in Britain was never built to prevent invasion or immigration, but to demonstrate the power of Rome.

The Great Wall of China, built in stages between 7 BC and 1644 AD, was built to protect China from the invaders from the north. It did not stop Kublai Kahn from conquering China in 1271 AD and establishing the Yuan Dynasty that ruled China until 1368 AD.

Jerusalem in probably an excellent example that walls don’t work. It was invaded by the Arabs in 68 AD, the Turks in 1073 AD, the Crusaders in 1099 AD, Saladin’s Muslim army in 1187 AD. It was sacked by the Tartars in 1244 AD and the Ottoman Turks captured it in 1512 AD.

Now there was the Berlin Wall. It was pretty effective because there were soldiers on the wall that shot anyone trying to cross it. If we establish a border wall, how many soldiers will we have on it and how many people will they have to shoot?

It would be better to take the $5 billion proposed for the wall and invest it in Central America to improve conditions so the natives of those countries would not have to flee to the U.S. for sanctuary and a better way of life. Putting up a wall won’t do it.

From Jim Clark in Lemoore, California