The US Army is returning to the guard the southern border of its country. This is a mission that is nearly as old as its country.
On May 15th, 2006 it was announced that as many as 150,000 National Guardsmen would be rotated through the southern border six thousand soldiers at a time to secure the gates so to speak. Instapundits are railing that this could be a mistake and is a drastic precedent. While I have no opinion on the first, I feel that I must point out that this is not a new concept by any means.
The US Military is tasked with protecting the country. Historically the army (read = the US Cavalry Regiments) have guarded the southern border for most of the period that we had one.After the Mexican- American war in 1845 the US army took up post on the border, abandoning it in 1860 for the civil war. The first thing that the Union army did at the end of the civil war in 1865 was send General Phil Sheridan and 25,000 bluecoats to the border to let then-Mexican emperor Maximillian that the Army was controlling the scene again.
For the next 80 years this was the army's bread and butter mission- protecting the 1300 mile long southern border. The Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th and 11th Cavalry spent their time there. Border posts such as Ft Huaracha and Ft Bliss survive to this day.
On March 9, 1916, 500 Mexican rebels led by bandit revolutionary General Francisco "Poncho" Villa's forces crossed the border and attacked the small town of Columbus, New Mexico. They killed 18 citizens, burned the town, and stole several horses, along with a small amount of cash and merchandise removed from shops. They were chased back into Mexico by 350 US Army soldiers of the 13th Cavalry Regiment stationed at nearby Camp Furlong.
This incident led to a buildup along the southern border and on March 19, on orders from President Woodrow Wilson, General John J. Pershing led an invasion force of 12,000 men into Mexico to capture Villa. The punitive expedition bogged down due to its lack of success, tension with Mexican officials and citizens, and returned to the US in 1917, without Villa. US Army troops remained in force along the border, with virtually every National Guard cavalry unit in existence serving a term along the Rio Grande. These troops retained their posts even when a million doughboys were sent to France to fight in the Great War.
After the end of World War One the US Army had more soldiers on watch along the Rio grand (26,000) than on the occupied Rhineland (18,000). It wasn't until the 1st US Cavalry Division lost their horses for good when they were pulled from the border in 1942 to go to Europe that the large scale US Army presence on the border was discontinued
So you see, this is not some new radical idea, but simply a return to the traditional missions of the American Army. The more things change, the more things stay the same.
