Does This Sound Familiar?

I enjoy westerns! In fact, I enjoy them so much that I have taken to listening to audiobooks of various western writers. Max Brand, Zane Grey, and a host of others have become my best companions during work hours. What amazes me at times is that some of the writing reflected contemporary views of the political scene at the time. Such is the case of the following below.

The writer is Zane Grey and he is obviously making comment on what he viewed as a problem around the early part of the 20th century. It is very close to what we hear today from those of us that are concerned with the protection of our borders.

Now if one were to view this in relation to the Mexican drug cartels and change a few words around; such as cavalry to border patrol, well… I’ll leave the reader to his own conclusions.

Herein below is the transcript of Mr. Grey’s writing on the subject.

“That’s bad” said Gayle, “it’s news to me. Why, doesn’t the government take action, do something?”

“Afraid of international complications. Don’t want to be criticized by the Maderos or by jealous foreign nations. It’s a delicate situation Dick. The Washington officials know the gravity of it, you can bet. But the United States in general is in the dark. And the army, well you ought to hear the inside talk back in San Antonio. We’re patrolling the boundary line; we’re making a grand bluff. I can tell you of a dozen instances where cavalry should have pursued raiders on the other side of the line. But we won’t do it. The officers are a grouchy lot these days. You see of course what significance would attach were United States Cavalry go into Mexican territory. There would simply be hell. My own Colonel is the sorest man on the job. We’re all sore. It’s like sitting on a powder magazine. We can’t keep the raiders and rebels from crossing the line. Yet we don’t fight.” said Thorn.

Now it’s not that I don’t think we don’t fight, because if fired upon we will fire back but the idea of not being able to chase after them does indeed bother me a great deal.

I understand that the POTUS cannot order national guard troops to the borders. However he could be agreeable to such a move should the local authorities, (TX, AZ) governors could order their National Guard units to help out.

If it were my call they’d be there in full force and firepower using all weapons that would be available to them in order to keep these dirt-bags off of American soil. But that’s just me.