Criticism without suggestions for improvement is a waste of everyone’s time. Suggestions don’t have to be perfect just as solutions don’t have to be perfect. They do, however, usually come from those willing to think. Taking your “points” one at a time:

The Einstein quote is a favority of mine, here misapplied. Yes, securing America’s borders is desired by all; and yes, it has yet to be achieved. When thousands of uneducated incompetent illegals just stroll into the U.S. year after year, those who would do this country serious harm also have virtually unhindered access also. If you think that’s acceptable, you’re an 1D10T.

Yes, the drug cartels still seem to be making money”. Will they go away if America abandons efforts to secure it’s borders? I think not; so, as the remaining option I suggest we “get serious” about it. I find your objection cause to question your motive(s).

Mining U.S. soil a political minefield? The Israelis have an identical problem. They use mines and walls very effectively. They also do a better, less intrusive job of achieving airline security because they don’t pay as much lip service to being “politically correct”. I think we could learn a lot from Isreali methods. Nobody promised easy, because if it was, these problems would already be solved.

The Geneva Convention does not protect those of an invading army in civilian clothes. Spies and saboteurs can be summarily shot. Reprisals against American civilians? Any American civilian that goes into a war zone is “on their own” and always has been. Think “personal choice, responsibility”.

You suggest because many of the American underslass want, like and would risk prison to get illegal drugs, these things ahould be embraced and accepted as “part of our culture”? I don’t think so, any more than the last century accepted the existance and “ways” of the Thugs (look it up).

The money presently spent on the “war on drugs”, like many federal programs, is more than enough to do the job at hand; but is poorly prioritized and incompetently utilized. When you’re on the wrong track, going faster is easier but doesn’t get you where you need to be. I would support using our military in the “war on drugs”, but those involved in the “war on poverty” might object.

Finally, I said “You bet”. The America you advocate would be a nation of losers. The America I advocate will be a nation of winners. “We, the people” will ultimately choose. That’s the “American way”. Get used to it!

Now it turns into a more meaningful number, and makes us question our own security instead of someone else’s.

I guess the Commissioner of Agriculture for the State of Texas is trying to form an army, why else would his office commissioned such a group to generate this report. Hey is this not the office Rick Perry held before he ran for Governor of Texas?

Given that the Commissioner is running for the Lieutenant Governor it really forward looking on his part that he would use state funds to have this document produced to inform the citizens of the Clear and Present Danger that Mexico (it inability to control it border, and drug gangs) presents to the citizens of State of Texas.

That is just so special.

Can we make “bring drugs, etc., across our border unprofitable,” as you put it? In decades of trying and who knows how many billions of dollars spent on interdiction, drug education and incarceration along with serious erosion of American civil rights, the drug cartels still seem to be making money in staggering quantities. And yet, you suggest more of the same with the twist of adding a minefield, which IMHO, tips your idea over the line separating dementia from psychosis. Mining U.S. soil (the Mexican government certainly won’t allow us to mine theirs) as part of a civilian operation with a non-military goal is a political minefield all its own.

Treating cartel members as enemy combatants requires that we observe the Geneva conventions and treat them as prisoners of war, not criminals. But perhaps you were hoping for another Guantanamo or some more waterboarding? What a good idea! But we should be prepared for reprisals against American civilians, just as has happened with Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

You want a national consensus? Okay, then we should legalize drugs because we want them, we like them and we are perfectly happy to risk prison to get them. Thousands of people was willing to risk prison, or even death, to supply us. They’re part of our culture; our last three Presidents have used drugs along with heaven knows how many other politicians, civic and business leaders.

Appropriate funding? Federal, state and local governments currently spend about $54 billion a year in the war on drugs including the cost of citing or arresting and prosecuting more than a million Americans annually for violations of drug laws.

BATFE (it hasn’t been ATF in years) is already in trouble for operations like “Fast & Furious.” It was so badly bungled that a Border Patrol agent was murdered with a gun that BATFE had been responsible for shipping south of the border.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s reputation is far larger than his reality. Studies have shown him to be no more effective that other county sheriffs in terms of recidivism or general law enforcement.

So I’ll happily take your bet and begin planning what to do with my winnings. Those who won’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it and, consequently, lose wagers based on their ignorance.

All it takes is a national consensus to do so with appropriate funding, and it will create jobs! We also need to establish advance legal determination that drug cartel people will be presumed to be enemy combatants and treated as such if they are in this country illegally and/or if they so much as jaywalk while here.

Do it with people from National Security Agency, Border Patrol and ATF, satellite and blimp surveillance and predators. Install tight mine fields a half mile + “in-country” from the fence maintenance road. Put Arizona’s Sheriff Joe in charge with full responsibility.

It’s a lot cheaper and simpler to do a proper job keeping these things out of the U.S. than finding them and dealing with them once they’re here.

Funny, but the same people bent on “preserving” the “moral fiber” of America are the same people cutting medicine for old people who have already paid for it. And the same people responsible for the USA having the highest percentage of its population incarcerated. News coverage of both sides of the problem simply does not exist. Might have something to do with payoffs? Nahhh. Moralists do not take payoffs. Wink wink.