My National Guard friend says he'll go to Canada before

[Erika]

he'll monitor the Mexico border. That wasn't what he signed up for as a meaning of national/state defense.

Will they have Alaska Guardsmen on duty in AZ?

The National Guard has received orders of silence on Bush's plan, and personally they are resenting it like hell.

[Canuckistanian]

1. Seems like easy duty to me

Is he really that upset by going to the border?

There ARE worse places to be sent.

[Erika]

3. Yes, he is

It's the mission. He didn't sign up for border control against our neighbors.

[northamericancitizen]

13. Cause it can easily slip into nasty confrontation

and soul wrenching decisions.

[tocqueville]

2. Well next step is to post the guards at the Canadian border...

to keep Americans inside of course...

[Erika]

8. There are thousands of miles with the Canadian border

that are largely totally unmonitored. We can escape and terrorists can come in, but W doesn't say a thing about the Canadian border. Not one word. It's all about the brown skinned Mexicans. Racist as hell.

[tritsofme]

17. Phone me when a million Canadians a year

cross the border illegally.

When we have 12 million illegal Canadian immigrants in America.

When you have a plan to secure 5,500 miles worth of border.

[JeffR]

4. Not that sending the Guard to the border is a good idea

But does your friend think a tour of duty in Iraq has anything to do with national/state defense? I'd feel better knowing your friend was patrolling the border than being put in the middle of a shooting gallery in Baghdad.

I think the great untold story of the Bush years has been the criminal misuse of the National Guard. Period. Bush is simply going to add another chapter to that story.

[KeepItReal]

6. Someone said they are callin in the Guard to help in a political emergency

It is a redundant mission that the Border Patrol has never been fully staffed to handle.

It *is* a much more honorable duty than dodging IED's in Iraq.

[Erika]

9. My friend has served a tour in Afghanistan

But at least he thought there was some reason for that mission. He doesn't see it in doing duty on the Mexican border. He, like many of our Guardsmen, have had it with W.

[Inland]

5. It's not like Alaska doesn't have it's OWN border to look at.

Or do they get a lot of desert training in the AKNG?

[MADem]

7. Hell, that's not too sharp on his part

It's a lame job, it's a meaningless sop to the conservatives, but his job will be crap. If he has construction skills he will be building fences, if he's an office worker he'll be doing office work, and if he's anything else, he'll be sitting on his ass with a pair of night vision glasses, radioing the BP to go git 'em.

It IS a stupid job, but it beats the hell out of going to EyeRack. He could find that his two weeks of ACDUTRA turns into a year in the sandbox--and THAT's a waste of life, there.

Odds are the coyotes will find a way around the NG, probably in fairly short order, so he won't see much out there anyway.

This is all a big show on Monkey's part. And if he goes to Canada, he might not ever get to come back--but he might be returned in shackles depending on how they want to play it.

I wouldn't count on a Carter amnesty...not this time. I can understand his resentment, but his proposed course of action isn't a bright idea.

[Wheres The Beef]

10. I guess my question would be

Unless he was drafted, what did he think he was signing up for? It's a military thing. Ya shoot at stuff and guard things. Your friend seems to think he joined the cub scouts. Good luck to him in canada, I don't think they are welcoming deserters.

[Erika]

11. He thought he was defending our country against hostile

enemies as the reason he joined. There is no draft.

[buzzard]

12. As a Canadian I would welcome deserters but IMO the fact that it is a

voluntary Army not a draft will play into the acceptance of said deserters by Canadians.

[dysfunctional press]

14. it has a lot more to do with 'national defense' than iraq...

did he sign up for that?

[Zachstar]

15. It sounds bad but

You have to admit...

Id MUCH MUCH MUCH rather guard and assist border patrol against people who just want a better life and will prob go without too much incident then assist Iraqi patrol against people fighting out of hatred and have a real intention of killing you and everyone in your unit.

This is where they NEED to be and not fighting wars against international law...

You HAVE to admit its better than Iraq and if he wants to leave for canada instead of assisting america with a real problem (They basicly will be doing the same thing as the MinuteMen did you realize that?) then fine good to have him gone...

[Erika]

16. He wanted to protect America against real enemies

Forget your strawmen. The National Guard was not instituted as a GOP babysitting service for GOP radical perceptions.

Whether you like it or not, that is the gut feeling of the National Guard.

[Wheres The Beef]

18. I don't give a rats ass about Bush

Kerry or Gore or McCain or any of them. Uncontrolled illegal immigration isn't about repubs or dems because none of them have any answers. These are not radical or racial perceptions. There are people dying in the desert as we type. Its not about what I like or not.

Have your friend come to Arizona for a week. See what our "neighbors" are doing. We've had 2 cars stolen and 1 totaled by our unlicensed uninsured "neighbors". We have running gun battles on our freeways between our "neighbors" smuggling humans in. We have 40-60 "neighbors" living in drop houses. Just last week some of our "neighbors" were busted with 5 million in cash, many guns and pounds and pounds of drugs. Daily we have stories of 15-16 of our "neighbors" rolling over in a mini-van. Does your friend want to come down here and help pay those medical bills for our "neighbors"?

Of course they only come here to do the jobs that we won't do. Tell that to my real neighbor, who lost his contacting business because he wouldn't hire illegals. (He is hispanic btw.) Ask my hispanic lawyer why his kid can't get a decent part time job to help with college expenses. Ask my wife why she can't go to Home Depot or Lowes without being harassed by our "neighbors".

I'll support the party that will enforce laws against hiring our "neighbors" and cut off the flow of funds back to our "neighbors" families in mexico, and really do something about our border.

I don't believe for a minute that Bush can solve the problem but I haven't heard anyone else come up with an answer either.

[Erika]

19. Don't you think the president should enforce immigration laws

Reagan was the first to give amnesty and it's built every since.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

20. Well...he won't be hit with IEDs on the Mexican border....

...and he won't be shot at or mortered.

Tell him that he should go do his Mexican border duty and get out as soon as he can. He'll keep his honorable discharge, and that's a good thing to have once he gets out and starts looking for a job.