Bizarro World America

Blame...Canada???

I've always said I wanted to become an American citizen.  The country is truly great.  Other than the Democratic party and it's destructive progressivist influence, what's not to love about the country? I've said that someday I will try to become an American citizen, and even joked that given the left's push for amnesty I might go illegally and end up voting against them once they grant me a path to citizenship.  I'd never do that.  But it seems like Canada is receiving the brunt of the U.S. government's border protection policy.  Mexican gangs are killing people along the U.S. border (apparently with weapons provided to them by the Department of Justice - no kidding), millions of Mexicans have streamed across the border to take jobs provided for illegal aliens, to draw welfare or to commit felonious crimes. Don't try to say they are streaming across the border illegally to engage in legal activities.  They by definition, can't.  Drugs pour across the southern U.S. border with a volume akin to Niagara Falls.  Iran is supposedly sending ships to patrol the Gulf of Mexico.  Clearly the Canadian border needs protection.

The United States is looking at building fences along the border with Canada to help keep out terrorists and other criminals, according to a draft report by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency

The report proposes the use of "fencing and other barriers" on the 49th parallel to manage "trouble spots where passage of cross-border violators is difficult to control."

Canadians are among the most non-militant, polite and lawful people in the world.  We are indeed, generally far too passive.  In the eyes of the U.S. government that seems to represent a clear and present danger.  Welcome to bizarro world America.

A U.S. Government Accountability Office report recently warned that only a small portion of the border with Canada is properly secure. It said U.S. border officers control just 50 kilometres of the 6,400-kilometre boundary.

Well, that's the world's longest undefended border for you. We prefer to consider it secure rather than undefended. Illegal Canadian immigrants are in the news every day, right?  It's a mammoth problem with them stressing welfare systems and getting all that free tuition in Texas.  It requires a fence to solve.

A little bit in the way of fact checking, firstly it's just not going to happen.  No one is really taking this seriously.  Are they?

..."it is unlikely that fencing will play as prominent a role" on the northern border, given its length and terrain that varies from prairie to forest.

However, the agency would use fencing and other barriers such as trenches to control movement and sometimes delay people trying to sneak across the border, increasing the likelihood they could be caught, says the report.

It doesn't provide details about what the fences might look like, but suggests they would be designed to blend into the environment and "complement the natural landscape."

Okay, not too seriously.  If they were to try to build fencing on the Canadian border there would probably be a Tea Party uprising.  Not because Canadians matter per se, but the obvious question "What about the Mexican border?" is being ignored in the process.  This would be a gift for the 2012 election for any conservative GOP candidate poised to face president Obama.  So, not gonna happen.

The other point to consider is that Canada has a significant level of immigration itself, from around the world, and there is the specter of possible terrorist activities taking advantage of that open border.  Failing Canada's addressing the potential problem jointly, perhaps a border fence is a possibility, but it is far from a necessity.  Canada is a U.S.-friendly country.  We are a potential terror target as well, though so far we have been lucky (through vigilance or just plain luck).  It is in the interest of both countries to secure the border effectively, and Canada is no Mexico when it comes to border issues.

Keep that in mind, will you?  Sorry, please keep that in mind if you would be so kind.