The Border

There is an old joke that goes, "One can abolish war by abolishing borders" A borderless Earth would then have only citizens of the planet. I predict ala "Star Trek" that a "Federation of Planets" will be a reality in the far far future. This hopeful utopia of a world, let alone planets without borders, undoubtably is the dream of those who advocate peace. My point in broaching these thoughts is that for all the planning the administration has maintained, and the glossy "coalition" we have built to fight world terrorism, we did not plan on the porous unprotected Iraqi borders that would allow jihadists to enter Iraq and multiply the insurgency. It is akin to the United States border with Mexico. How many millions have illegally emmigrated here to better their lives? How many jihadist supporters of the insurgency in Iraq are able to cross borders to join the fray? I don't think Rumsfield, Cheney, Bush, Libby or anyone had the slightest clue as to the impact of fighters moving into Iraq. Now that the world knows America condones fascist techniques such as torture, more and more folks will cross borders to express their "views" against torture and the like. Meanwhile others will think of the 2000+ year history of western invasion of the middle east. From the Crusades to today, that region has seen more bloodshed than I can imagine. The arrogance of the United States to premeptively initiate this conflict, and the stupidity of not providing enough "coalition" forces to secure Iraqi borders equates to the quagmire we now face.