The Wall vs. the Cult of Can't
We can do it - build the border wall and make American great again - but we've been told again and again that we can't.
In the January 25, 2017 American Thinker article America, at Last the Land of Can-Do, Chet Richards explains that:
For the past eight years, and more, a spell of gloom has been cast over the nation. The cult of can't has fostered this demoralization. The Progressive left, for years in control of our institutions, has deliberately bound us in ever tightening chains of regulations and taxes and economic depression. These people may call themselves liberal, but in truth they are the opposite. They mean to control us, to inhibit us, to make us submit to their bullying – to their political correctness.
That's behind us now. We're moving on, but not in the direction the radical Soros-funded moveon dot org wants us to. Richards writes:
Many now have rebelled against the spell of gloom – thus the amazing recent election. President Trump was the first major political figure to recognize the problem and to seek to break the spell. That is the secret of his election.
Others civilizations have secured their borders
Richards observes out how other civilizations have secured their borders:
Hordes poured in over the border – men mostly, but women and children as well. Rape and pillaging and murder followed wherever they went, though most of the invaders were peaceable. The nation's prosperity rapidly diminished. The commander-in-chief ordered a wall built to stop the invasion. And so it was done. Across an entire continent, from the Black Sea to the Irish Sea, Emperor Hadrian's Limes was constructed. The Roman Empire once more regained its peace and prosperity.
Hordes poured in over the border, rape and pillaging and murder, the nation's prosperity rapidly diminished. And so, from the China Sea to the Mongolian steppes, a Great Wall was constructed. China once more regained its peace and prosperity.
Israel today is secured by a functioning border wall. In England, the Brexit vote recently passed, requiring that England exit the European Union. The vote was fudamentally about securing England's borders and halting EU mandated mass immigration.
We can do it
Richards observes that as a free people, we are remarkably adaptable and capable. During World War II, this was called "can do." He points out that:
We were in the war for only three and a half years. Our industry in that short time produced industrial miracles: more than 5,000 cargo ships, with four cargo ships a day being launched; 124 aircraft carriers (we started the war with just eight) and 1,200 other major warships; 200,000 combat aircraft together with 100,000 support aircraft; 100,000 armored vehicles and 2.5 million trucks of all sizes; millions of rifles and machine guns and millions of rounds of artillery ammunition. In a matter of months we built factories in the thousands to produce all this.
... the Manhattan Project, started almost from scratch in terms of knowledge. In four short years, it developed the war-ending atomic bombs.
Two decades later, in seven short years, we put Americans on the Moon.
Today, we have the right, the ability, and the obligation to future generations of Americans to secure our border against unarmed invasion. Building a secure border wall / fence is an integral component of preserving our great nation.
Richards writes that:
... a secure border wall is little more than a road with two fences. Today, the United States has 3.9 million miles of road. Each year we construct 317,000 miles of paved roads. Building a 2,000-mile single-lane fenced road along the border is small potatoes. The no-can-do crowd is just plain silly – or stupid, if you prefer.
In a 2004 article, Ed Rubenstein asked, How Come We Can Have 40,000 miles Of Interstate, But Not 2,000 Miles Of Border Fence? The article explained that a 1,951-mile full-length border fence would cost only:
- 3.2 percent of the $104 billion spent on highway construction annually, or
- 0.7 percent of the defense budget for FY2004 ($452 billion), or
- 0.14 percent of the entire U.S. Federal budget for FY2004.
Keep in mind that Congress approved the Secure Fence Act of 2006. But it was not funded, and as Richards notes, "a cynical commander-in-chief saw political advantage in the invasion and canceled the wall."
Today we can do it - and we will. President Trump has proclaimed that a secure border wall will be built. We will do it, as Richards observes, because:
... the nation's survival depends on it.
And because building it is such a trivial effort for this great nation.
CAIRCO Research
Border security and porous United States - Mexico border fence