General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDeployed Inside the United States: The Military Waits for the Migrant Caravan
With little electricity, no combat pay and holidays away from home, the 5,600 American troops on the southwest border are on a mission ordered by a politically determined commander in chief and a Pentagon unable to convince him of its perils.
The midterm elections are over, along with President Trumps rafter-shaking rallies warning that an approaching migrant caravan of Central Americans amounts to a foreign invasion that warrants deploying up to 15,000 active-duty military troops to the border states of Texas, Arizona and California.
But the 5,600 American troops who rushed to the brown, dry scrub along the southwest border are still going through the motions of an elaborate mission that appeared to be set into action by a commander in chief determined to get his supporters to the polls.
In the last several days, the soldiers installed a small shower tent. Men and women have set hours for bathing. There is no mess hall, just the brown, prepackaged M.R.E.s. The tents sleep 20 soldiers and have no electricity or air-conditioning. Phone charging is relegated to a few generators that power the spotlights around the living area. Some soldiers slowly began digging a trench outside their tents, to keep water from pooling around their cots and their feet in the coming rain. Others shuffled to port-a-potties and foot-powered sinks to shave and brush their teeth.
Instead of football with their families on this Veterans Day weekend, soldiers with the 19th Engineer Battalion, fresh from Fort Knox, Ky., were painstakingly webbing concertina wire on the banks of the Rio Grande. The deployment orders last until Dec. 15, meaning the troops will be on the border over Thanksgiving.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/us/deployed-inside-the-united-states-the-military-waits-for-the-migrant-caravan.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Historic NY
(37,453 posts)meanwhile the caravans are heading to Tijuana on the safer route that 2495 miles away
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)I sort of agree with you. The military may see the winter Equinox before they see a caravan.
Historic NY
(37,453 posts)I say average 12 - 15 .
Walking 12 miles in Epcot & Disneyworld is a nightmare.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)They arrive in May sometime. I hope our troops know how to play solitaire. Hell, they can build themselves a soccer field by the time the caravan reaches them.
Historic NY
(37,453 posts)joshcryer
(62,276 posts)If it really takes them until May then it's unlikely that the Pentagon even has the same troops deployed there. They'll quietly take those dudes back to their bases.
empedocles
(15,751 posts)5,000 troops sitting there day after day, with traitortrump wanting 15,000 - more expensive traitortrump bs.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)RHMerriman
(1,376 posts)What a waste of time, sweat, and money.
Marcuse
(7,506 posts)UTUSN
(70,740 posts)they are able to out for Mexican food and date the locals who are majority-minority Hispanics? Seems like they are living the life!1
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)Hermit-The-Prog
(33,414 posts)Ok, make it a taco truck convoy to deliver aid and relief to the forgotten troops. (They may be relieved that Cadet Bone Spurs has forgotten about them).
Homemade flour tortillas, homemade tamales, and more.
lpbk2713
(42,766 posts)Frankly, I'd be ashamed to tell anyone that's what I'm doing.