We live in an odd time. Ours is the era caught between the normal life of the past and a dystopian future. We are watching things come to pass that, less than a decade ago, most of us would never have envisioned. We have front-row seats to the devolution of society. I will spare you the litany of those things that have gone awry in the past few years as America and the world approach terminal velocity.
Aside from 9/11, Pearl Harbor, Japanese incursions into Alaska, and balloon bombs during the Second World War, for the most part, combat has been unknown on or close to American soil. In fact, we now have a generation of people who know little, if anything about 9/11.
The concept that a foreign agent or power would commit an act of war in or even near the United States has seemed for so long to be impractical and impossible. Some would like to believe that 9/11 was a fluke. Nothing like that could ever happen again. Hamas is a liberation organization, and everyone who crosses the border illegally is just here to make a better life for themselves. Only a racist, xenophobic conservative would ever believe otherwise.
But U.S. Customs and Border Protection has told its agents to keep an eye out for IEDs. In our arrogance, we tend to think that things like IEDs are confined to war zones in distant lands. But on Wednesday, Mexican authorities located ten such devices on the Mexican side. Fox News reported that the IEDs were found after what amounted to a firefight near Tucson between two rival cartels. Each side wanted control of the area that has a gap in the border fence. That gap has previously served as a portal for transporting drugs. It is currently used for human trafficking. One suspect was found with an AK-47, two magazines, loose rounds, and a handgun.
Granted, Americans were not the targets of this firefight, but does anyone think that the cartels care if non-combatants are caught in the crossfire? And how long will these sorts of skirmishes be contained to the border? Cartels already have shown that they have no regard for human life. The prevalence of drug and human trafficking is evidence enough of that. The Fox story said that even as Republicans try to fight for tougher border security, the Biden administration is digging in its heels, claiming that such measures would "cut off nearly all access to humanitarian protections in ways that are inconsistent with our Nation’s values and international obligations."
As if Biden and his party care about humanitarian protections. If they did, they would recognize that IEDs on the Mexican side of the border quickly translate into IEDs on this side of the border, to say nothing of those among the ranks of the immigrants who are not here for a better life but to carry out acts of terror and further the interests of crime syndicates. But at least they will all vote the right way, or at least enough of them will. Such is the hope of this "humanitarian-minded" administration.
Sadly, the powers that be in the United States, their acolytes in the media, and at least two generations of college students have made America a soft target. These people have prattled about pronouns, fascinated themselves with minutiae, set about canceling everything and everyone that made them uncomfortable, and focused their sites on the patriarchy. We are unprepared for the concept of IEDs, and the border and will be equally unprepared for them within the nation itself.
Too many Americans have become accustomed to inflation, crime, homeless camps, intellectual purges, riots, OnlyFans, and the rest of the cultural, political, and social rot of this part of the 21st century to notice. Too many Americans have become fat, sassy, and dull, even as the nation itself goes broke. And too many leaders are willing to promote and exploit American complacency and stupidity.
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