Stupid Border Wall: echo from Mississippi with a history lesson

A stupid Border Wall is an ancient idea- An opinion letter from Moss Point*, Mississippi, echo published in the Sun Herald, a Mississippi newspaper.  

General George Patton quotes:  Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.
Quoted in 50 Military Leaders Who Changed the World‎ (2007) by William Weir, p. 173
Unsourced variant: Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man. Anything built by man, can be destroyed by him.

In my opinion, a border wall will be a target for sabotage.  Besides, you don't need to be a four star general to realize how the Vietnamese built tunnels in their strategy to defeat the Americans in the Vietnam war....

Dear Editor:  General George S. Patton said, "Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man."

The justification for building a wall at the US southern border based on walls that were built during ancient times is absurd. A wall is a 16th century solution for a 21st century problem.

The facts show, a majority of illegal immigrants come into the U.S. from overstayed visas. The majority of drugs come in through open posts of entry, and some through an array of tunnels. Apprehensions of illegal aliens ar our southern border are at historic lows, down from a high of 220,000 a mont in 2000 to 40,000 a month in 2019.

People would have you believe 4,000 suspected terrorists have been apprehended at our southern border, but the actualy nuber is 6 (six!), the other 3, 994 were detained at airports, worldwide. These people are being wrongly portrayed as being criminals, murderers and thieves, out to crate crime in our streets. 

Yet, studies prove that the overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants living in America commit less crime than the general population. These people are just poor souls, looking for a better life, running from poverty and/or certain death from corruption and crime in their native countries.

The majority of illegal immigrant refugees now come from Central American Northern Triangle area. That's not to way we should have open borders, we don't. Yes, we need to account for everybody entering our country but we need to be smart about it, cost effective and humane, and not waste upward of $30 billion dollars for ancient walls.

From David Cameron, Moss Point Mississippi

*Post Script from Maine Writer- I looked up "Moss Point", a practice I try to do before publishing "echoes", to verify locations of the authors. I discovered that this location in Mississippi was devastated by hurricane Katrina. Therefore, I'd say, border walls are not only stupid, ancient and subject to destruction, but also at risk for the destruction caused by natural disasters.

Moss Point is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 13,704 at the 2010 census, down from 17,653 at the 2000 census. On August 29, 2005, Moss Point was hit by the strong east side of Hurricane Katrina, and much of the city was flooded or destroyed.Wikipedia

ISIS evil beheader is doomed and world leaders know his name

"British citizens have volunteered to go to Syria to fight at 25 times the rate that Americans have done so, when adjusted for population size." CNN Reports

To the evil ISIS beheader of three young men who didn't do anything to harm you, listen up!  I'm a woman telling you about your own limited life expectancy, because your days are numbered. As an evil perpetrator of barbarianism, you're doomed to eternal damnation. You'll inevitability be destroyed by thousands of people focused on murdering you.  Furthermore, the person who will be forced to take your place, is also doomed. Moreover, your grotesque beheadings are serving an unlikely purpose. In fact, your unspeakable evil is causing allies to coalesce in the destruction of the ISIS movement, including all involved in perpetrating the murderous intentions of the non Muslim and non state ISIS terrorist vigilantes.

CNN Reports:

(CNN) -- He has beheaded again. The tall, masked British man with the London accent, working with ISIS.

His first two victims were American journalists. His third was a fellow citizen, British aid worker David Haines.

British Prime Minister David Cameron hastily assembled a meeting of his top national security advisers in the early hours of Sunday morning to discuss what can be done.

According to British officials, Cameron knows the identity of the British executioner.

ISIS executes David Haines, Cameron vows justice.

Cameron also knows that the executioner has also killed two citizens of his country's closest ally and he knows that the executioner holds at least two other American citizens.

Cameron knows that the executioner holds other hostages from additional Western countries and that he's part of a larger group of British hostage-takers working for ISIS, nicknamed "the Beatles" by their captives. And he knows that the lives of the remaining hostages are in grave danger.

It is a real crisis for Cameron, and it underlines a sobering fact: British citizens have volunteered to go to Syria to fight at 25 times the rate that Americans have done so, when adjusted for population size.

Some 500 British citizens have traveled to Syria to fight, as have 100 Americans. The population of the United Kingdom is about a fifth of that of the States.

A British government assessment by the Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism provided to CNN shows that the British have already arrested 69 people this year for "Syria related terrorist offences" that include terrorist financing, preparing an act of terrorism, and attending a terrorist training camp.

In 2013, 25 people were arrested in the UK on similar charges, bringing the total number of arrests to 94, according to the British government assessment. By contrast, only eight have been arrested for similar Syria-related terrorist crimes in the States.

ISIS execution videos strikingly similar

The war in Syria is attracting British fighters from all kinds of ethnic backgrounds, not just those of Syrian descent. A British official told CNN that the vast majority of British fighters going to Syria do not have any real links to the country other than a desire to fight in a holy war against the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Alarmed by the threat posed by its citizens fighting in Syria, the British government has already refused to issue or has cancelled 23 passports and has also revoked the citizenship of eight British citizens, according to the Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism.

The British agency also underlines the threat posed by other European citizens who have traveled to Syria, who can freely travel around the European Union, including the UK, and who can also travel to the States without visas as they are from so-called "visa waiver" countries.

Statement from the family of David Haines

According to the British government, 700 fighters have traveled to Syria from France; 400 from Germany; between 300 and 500 from Belgium; 130 from the Netherlands; over 100 from Denmark; 100 from Austria; 80 from Sweden; and between 50 and 100 from Spain.

The British government also estimates that 100 Canadians have left Canada to "support or train with terrorist movements abroad. The majority of these are likely to be in Syria." And it estimates that there are 60 Australians fighting in Syria and Iraq and about 100 Australian "facilitators" helping to make this possible in Australia.

This brings the total number of Westerners who have fought in Syria to between 2,620 and 2,870, according to the British Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism assessment obtained by CNN, which is likely the most authoritative estimate yet.

Despite the fact that the British government has identified the executioner of the two American journalists and of David Haines, it is not making his name public "for operational reasons."

That's because the only likely hope for the remaining hostages is some kind of rescue operation similar to the one that the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command mounted on July 4, which didn't achieve its purpose because the prisoners had been recently moved from the location where they were being held in Syria.

A rescue operation is a long shot, but at this point it may be the only real chance of saving the lives of the remaining hostages. David Cameron knows this -- and so does President Barack Obama.