Top General Says Mexico Border Security Now ‘Existential’ Threat to U.S.

Top General Says Mexico Border Security Now ‘Existential’ Threat to U.S.
July 5, 2014
by Molly O'Toole

A top United States general in charge of protecting the southern border says he’s been unable to combat the steady flow of illegal drugs, weapons and people from Central America, and is looking to Congress for urgent help.

Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, commander of U.S. Southern Command, has asked Congress this year for more money, drones and ships for his mission – a request unlikely to be met. Since October, an influx of nearly 100,000 migrants has made the dangerous journey north from Latin America to the United States border. Most are children, and three-quarters of the unaccompanied minors have traveled thousands of miles from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

“In comparison to other global threats, the near collapse of societies in the hemisphere with the associated drug and [undocumented immigrant] flow are frequently viewed to be of low importance,” Kelly told Defense One. “Many argue these threats are not existential and do not challenge our national security. I disagree.”

In spring hearings before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, Kelly said that budgets cuts are “severely degrading” the military’s ability to defend southern approaches to the U.S border. Last year, he said, his task force was unable to act on nearly 75 percent of illicit trafficking events. “I simply sit and watch it go by,” he said. But the potential threats are even greater. Kelly warned that neglect has created vulnerabilities that can be exploited by terrorist groups, describing a “crime-terror convergence” already seen in Lebanese Hezbollah’s involvement in the region.

“All this corruption and violence is directly or indirectly due to the insatiable U.S. demand for drugs, particularly cocaine, heroin and now methamphetamines,” Kelly told Defense One, “all of which are produced in Latin America and smuggled into the U.S. along an incredibly efficient network along which anything – hundreds of tons of drugs, people, terrorists, potentially weapons of mass destruction or children – can travel, so long as they can pay the fare.”

Continued at: http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2...der-security-now-existential-threat-us/87958/

 

LMAO. Good luck with that. While he's at it, he can also put some cameras on pigs and let them fly over the borders.

 

I wasn't aware there were marines stationed on the southern border. In fact, I'm quite sure they aren't.

Basically, this is a pentagon pol trying to use the crisis to get more money. Seems to be a lot of that going on.

 

Obama being eviscerated on CNN and MSNBC after his news conference tonight. They can't stand the idea that he refuses to go see what's actually happening at the border. One actually said they thought he just doesn't really want to see it with his own eyes. Well no shit. That's been his game all along. See nothing, know nothing. This is how one crisis after another happens right under his nose and he seems oblivious. Perhaps the left is now finally getting it. The guy is Sgt. Shultz.

 

NO! General Kelly is the farthest thing from a "pentagon pol." He's the four-star Combatant Commander of U.S. Southern Command. Here's what that means http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Combatant_Command Here's more about SOUTHCOM specifically: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Southern_Command

As an example, Norman Schwarzkopf was the Combatant Commander of U.S. Central Command during the first Gulf War and commanded all U.S. forces because it took place in his AOR.