Fingertip Search
| 12:37 UK time, Tuesday, 16 May 2006
And furthermore on the immigration story, the following masterful mathematics from World Update's friend and favourite former intel officer, Vic Socotra.
Vic has listened carefully to President Bush's speech and thought through the plan.
The President, notes Vic, "said last night he is going to send as many as 6,000 national guardsman to the border. I tried to calculate the impact of the deployment. If the six thousand stood fingertip to fingertip, and assuming a span of six feet, that would enable us to go man-on-man with the migrants for nearly 36,000 feet, or over seven miles of border"
Vic goes on with his sums:
"Maybe they will spread them out a little. The President said the Texas-Mexican border alone is almost 1,200 miles long, or approximately 1.2 million Guardsman, finger-tip to finger-tip, but my calculations were in nautical miles, so I might be off a little bit.
"The Mexican press is in an uproar about the militarization of the border. I'm not sure what seven miles of the frontier they are looking at, but I imagine it is pretty intimidating."
Of course, they'll have to sleep standing up, Vic, otherwise it won't work.
Comments
The United States is a nation of immigrants as well as of law-and-order. On phone-in radio programmes and in newspaper interviews, some Americans say, "All illegals should be deported" and others, "Those illegals who have been here for some years, have worked hard, put down roots, and do not have a criminal record, should be given the opportunity to seek permanent residence and citizenship". In the United States Congress, the House of Representatives seems to lean toward the first, though not in all respects, and the Senate toward the second. A good deal of complex negotiation lies ahead.
Now I know why I have computer problems.
I heard Bush's speech. The only way troops can be deployed to the border areas would be to withdraw from Iraq.
The plan is flawed. What happens if a natural disaster strikes? I think troops will have to be withdrawn from Iraq in order to deploy them on the border.