by Jim Barton on Saturday, October 1, 2011 at 7:06am
   
     As we sat on the second row at the beautiful UTB/TSC Arts Center earlier this month for the Border Security Seminar, T.J. Bonner, a retired Border Patrol official, expressed his own personal suggestion in dealing with the drug cartels.  Air strikes.  He said, of course, that U.S. troops could never be deployed, but he hoped the U.S. military would be allowed to perform strategic air strikes on the cartels, saying simply "We know where they are."  It was one of those moments where you look around to see if anyone else is falling out of their chair, shocked or thrilled.  But I saw no visible reaction from the audience or panel on stage.  It was as if the man had said drugs are harmful or that water is wet.
     Of course, even so-called surgical air strikes with near flawless intelligence would have collateral damage.  A nursery or school could be hit, killing innocent ones.  Certainly, the Mexican government would not favor this nor the U.S. government.  But the fact that something like this was even mentioned may speak more to the level of desperation than anything else.
 

     Another idea thrown out there would be to bring the training of National Guard troops to the border.  They have to be trained somewhere.  Putting the training of at least some troops along border areas might have some side benefits.  Of course, it's good for the local economy. But do you think it would have an effect on drugs running north or guns running south?  Would the cartels or other thugs dare engage U.S. troops.  Then what?
 

     A dumb idea that was implemented was "Operation Fast and Furious", sending 2,000 automatic weapons into Mexico with the weapons being tracked so we can find out who the killers are.  1,400 of those weapons are still unaccounted for.  No telling how many civilians and Mexican military learned the hard way who the killers were because of these U.S. imported weapons.