Thoughts from Matt Bracken, sent from Michael Yon (via WRSA).
Yes. A reminder that we’re under invasion.
Related: I stumbled upon this blog a couple of days ago. Borderland Beat.
It’s a website dedicated to reporting on the operations of the Mexican cartels on the Mexican-U.S. border. The beheadings, violence, buyouts and corruption is everywhere.
Yes, we’re under invasion. Messing with Russia’s “near abroad” is about the stupidest thing we could possibly do – unless they’re trying to distract you and enrich themselves (or install the rainbow flag over the Kremlin).
Texas National Guard Is Ineffective on Texas Border
Texas National Guard — Something is WRONG
Am witnessing on the Texas border — Texas National Guard — something is wrong. (Am in Virginia at the moment — just briefed a bunch of Members of Congress and others).
As you know, I spent more time with US forces in combat than any correspondent alive. And my track record on calling the ball where it bounces has been verified time and again with ‘slow motion replay’ as years pass by.
Most Texas National Guard on the border I encounter act like they got something to hide. This is the norm. Say, 80 percent. This is abnormal for troops deployed like this.
My sense is they are not useful on the line and represent a danger to themselves. Something just ain’t right. I’ve gone so far as checking into hotels they stay in and being there night and day watching. (Your donations in actions…sorry, often cannot say exactly what is up…I can give glimpses like this — I eat breakfast, lunch, dinner at the next table, and see them at the border).
Almost certainly the morale and training problems are command failure. I do not know the cause but my experience points directly to command failure. Starting at the President, SecDef, Texas Governor, and working down into the uniformed ranks.
Our border is wide open. We are under invasion. And those we have guarding the border should be relieved and replaced by another force.
On the evening of Sept. 10, a soldier deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border slid a manifesto under each door in his brigade headquarters and then slipped away.
The frustrated Army National Guardsman assigned to the 110th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade headquarters had seen enough.
Three soldiers had died in three months, the most recent in an alleged DUI just five days earlier, and more than a dozen troops from the mission had been arrested or confined for drugs, sexual assault and manslaughter.
“Someone please wave the white flag and send us all home,” the letter pleaded. “I would like to jump off a bridge headfirst into a pile of rocks after seeing the good ol’ boy system and fucked up leadership I have witnessed here.”
The unit never found the author.
The letter was provided to Army Times by another anonymous soldier, who like others for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss equipping, staffing and misconduct issues plaguing the border mission.
For much of 2021, more than 4,000 Guard personnel from 20 states helped monitor the U.S.-Mexico border alongsideCustoms and Border Protection personnel. The majority were part of a brigade-level ground force led by the 110thMEB known as Task Force Phoenix, a combination of 34 distinct Guard units stitched together with virtually no prior relationships, complicating an already wayward operation. Most returned home in October, when a new Guard task force took over.
When troops weren’t on duty, most were at hotels in remote locations. Alcohol and drug abuse became so widespread that senior leaders issued breathalyzers and instituted alcohol restrictions that tightened as the misconduct incidents piled up.
Leaders initiated more than 1,200 legal actions, including nonjudicial punishments, property loss investigations, Army Regulation 15-6 investigations and more. That’s nearly one legal action for every three soldiers. At least 16 soldiers from the mission were arrested or confined for charges including drugs, sexual assault and manslaughter. During the same time period, only three soldiers in Kuwait, a comparable deployment locale with more soldiers, were arraigned for court-martial.
Troops at the border had more than three times as many car accidents over the past year — at least 500 incidents totaling roughly $630,000 in damages — than the 147 “illegal substance seizures” they reported assisting.
One cavalry troop from Louisianawas temporarily disbanded due to misconduct and command climate issues — an extremely rare occurrence.
A 1,000-soldier battalion-level task force based in McAllen, Texas, had three soldiers die during the border deployment. For comparison, only three Army Guard troops died on overseas deployments in 2021, out of tens of thousands.
It sounds like it’s out of control, with no leadership, no accountability, no morals or scruples, no coherent world and life view among the troops, little to no training, little to no expectations, and poor equipment. In other words, with the U.S. Navy crashing ships into each other, the USMC inviting women into infantry officer training at Quantico, sex change operations the order of the day, the infliction of unconstitutional orders on the military (forced vaccinations), very low morale among the Navy SEALs (something I’ve been told directly by those associated with the SEALs), and on the list could go, it sounds like the NG is in about the same place as the rest of the military.
The U.S. military is disintegrating, perhaps all by design. Now, compare this assessment of the strict organizational structure of the cartels in Mexico.
The cartels will screw IDs to your forehead.
They aren’t playing a game, and there is no disobedience of orders. There is full accountability, good equipment, and a consistent world and life view (albeit wicked).
There is no winning a war in which you do not believe. There is only abject surrender and submission.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador quickly rebuffed Trump’s offer, saying his government will seek justice in the case. And on Wednesday, López Obrador’s top security official went further, saying the U.S. could help — by stopping the flow of high-powered weapons into Mexico.
“This is a grave problem we have in the country, the smuggling of arms, particularly from the U.S.,” Security Minister Alfonso Durazo said in an update on the case Wednesday morning. Of the flow of weapons from the U.S., he added, “it’s what has allowed the criminal groups to increase their firepower.”
It doesn’t matter that it isn’t true. Any chance to blame Americans is a good chance, given that you’re only in Mexico to begin with because you’re polygamists and thus illegal in America.
Fuel theft is becoming recognized as a significant organized crime activity. In Mexico, both cartels (e.g., the Cártel del Golfo and Los Zelas) and other criminal gangs known as huachicoleros (such as the Cártel Santa Rosa de Lima or CSRL) are notorious for their illicit/clandestine taps on fuel or hydrocarbon infrastructure.[2] Fuel theft poses operational concerns and hazards (such as explosions) in addition to its economic impact and nexus with corruption.[3] Fuel theft by criminal groups is targeted across the petroleum production, processing, and distribution infrastructure:
• Crude storage and transport,
• Refineries,
• Distribution pipelines; predominately surface but now also including
subterranean pipeline taps,
• Fuel trucks,
• Gasoline/Petrol stations.
The fuel stolen (both crude and processed) is typically sold at a discount to illicit businesses but may also be distributed for point-of-sale purposes to a multitude of individual consumers. Though the processing of stolen crude at gang-owned refineries and/or sales of refined petroleum at gang-owned gasoline stations is not unheard of for profit maximizing purposes.
So don’t give me that crap about American gun owners being the problem. We’ve heard it, we’ve debunked it, and you can get lost.
Mexican authorities were outgunned by criminal cartels in two notable incidents this month. In both cases, the criminals were armed with high-powered .50-caliber firearms. First, on October 13, in the state of Michoacan, a police convoy was ambushed with .50-caliber sniper rifles, leaving 13 officers dead and nine wounded. Four days later, in the state of Sinaloa, the government was forced to abandon an operation to arrest the son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, after his henchmen assaulted the authorities with both sniper rifles and truck-mounted machine guns.
“We are seeing a full-out criminal insurgency in Mexico right now,” said Robert Bunker, an international security expert who teaches at the Army War College Strategic Studies Institute and has written about the use of .50-caliber rifles by Mexican cartels.
Often, the weapons come from the United States, where civilian sales of high-caliber sniper rifles are unregulated in all but three states.
Oh. So we’re going to do this again?
Okay. It might be just a wee bit interesting if it really meant anything. And if it did, the only thing it would mean for me is that the FedGov needs to close the border. I mean really close it. To all traffic, both human and vehicular.
But that’s not what this is about. The Trace wants you to think that if we just have more gun control we might be able to help the Mexican government, something I couldn’t care less about and isn’t even on my radar screen.
Ever wonder where Mexican drug cartels are getting all their weapons? After all, since 1972, the most power rifle that you can buy in the country is a .22 caliber weapon. Yet, Mexican drug cartels have grenades, grenade launchers, and fully automatic guns. We have been collecting some quotes on where Mexico gets its guns.
“These kinds of guns — the auto versions of these guns — they are not coming from El Paso,” [Ed Head, a firearms instructor in Arizona who spent 24 years with the U.S. Border Patrol] said. “They are coming from other sources. They are brought in from Guatemala. They are brought in from places like China. They are being diverted from the military. But you don’t get these guns from the U.S.”
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Vigilante attacks and mob justice appeared to be on the rise in Mexico this week as violence mounted, more than two dozen bodies appeared along roadsides and the government ruled out any new crackdown on criminal gangs.
Prosecutors in the northern state of Sinaloa said Thursday five young men have been murdered in recent days, and in all five cases toy cars were carefully placed atop their corpses. The men were apparently car thieves, and the toys indicated both the reason they were killed and served as a warning to other thieves.
The latest such murder came Wednesday. Prosecutors said the victim had been identified as the same man seen on security camera footage earlier that day stealing a pickup truck at gunpoint from a woman outside her home in the state capital, Culiacan.
The National Human Rights Commission said 43 people have been killed in lynchings so far this year, and 173 injured. That was up from the already-record year for mob justice in 2018.
“Those who take justice into their own hands commit acts of barbarism, not justice,” the commission said.
Vigilantes say they have to act because authorities won’t crack down on criminal gangs, which have become more brazen and have begun returning to the grisly mass executions that marked Mexico’s 2006-2012 drug war.
Actually, there is a strong history of constables gathering a Posse of locals and enforcing justice. I much prefer it to the [in]justice we see today.
As for Mexico, it is a failed state, right on the Southern border.
When gun-grabbers first started throwing around that claim, they were assuring us it was “95 to 100 percent.” The con they’re pulling is limiting numbers to what is being submitted for tracing. The total population of guns recovered but not submitted is much larger. And the total number of guns in the hands of Mexico’s warring cartels equips armies.
The only thing this proves to me is that the best gunsmiths and machinists live in the U.S. and sell legally to the police and military in other countries. Otherwise, what’s old is new again. Always looking for a reason to control things.
That’s my title because that’s the title of the video. Forget for a moment where this is occurring, or that it’s a little dated (2016). I found this profoundly interesting, and if you watch it with an open mind I think you’ll find all sorts of lessons and tactical applications. I’ll let you fill in the details in the comments section. And I think you’ll be surprised at some of what happens in the video. I’m posting it for educational purposes only, of course.
Quite some time ago, the Sinoloa drug cartel took up shop in Humboldt County, CA. Today, they are controlling much of the marijuana trafficking from a region that is now often referred to as the Emerald Triangle. They engage in illegal water diversion to irrigate their crops courtesy of Nancy and Paul Pelosi. They have trouble with rodents and small animals eating through the PVC piping. Subsequently, the Sinoloas spread and extreme toxin on the perimeter of their property to kill all-would-be invaders that would destroy their PVC piping. The United States Forest Service has become aware of this practice because of the threat to both the drinking water for millions of Californians as well as the dramatic effect this can have on the food chain.
Besides using rodenticide, the pot growers liberally spray their plants with highly concentrated insecticides such as carbofuran, a chemical that can seep through soil and enter ground water….
“The water lines get gnawed on primarily by rodents, so they scatter rodenticide pellets along
the pipe,” Thompson said. “But the water catchment pond and the actual camp are draws for all kinds of critters, so we find rodenticide pellets as well as open cans of tuna and cat food laced with insecticide. The tuna and cat food targets species like foxes, bears, and ravens. ”The killing effects can spread up the food chain, in a process called bioaccumulation, as larger predators feed on the smaller, poisoned animals. In one memorable case of bioaccumulation that Thompson observed, a fox died from consuming insecticide-laced bait. All the fleas, ticks, and flies on the fox died as well, and a vulture that fed on the dead fox also died. A recent study (link is external) by California State researchers on owls further validates that toxic levels of rodenticides and insecticides are entering the terrestrial food web.
Carbofuran’s chemical formula is C12H15NO3. “Carbofuran has one of the highest acute toxicities to humans of any insecticide widely used on field crops … Since its toxic effects are due to its activity as a cholinesterase inhibitor it is considered a neurotoxic pesticide.” Cholinesterase serves as a neurotransmitter.
There is also this potential side effect. In one study of rats, Carbofuran in sublethal amounts decreased testosterone by 88%. Great.
Other insurgents know how to use water as a weapon of war. Whether intentionally or accidentally, diversion of water supplies is open warfare. Too, poisoning what remains of the water supply is serious business. Call it was it is: warfare on all accounts. Don’t look for the folks in California to do anything about it.
So just to be sure, if you’re smoking pot, you could be inhaling rat poison and Carbofuran. The rat poison can make you very sick in nonlethal doses, and the Carbofuran suppresses your testosterone. If you smoke that stuff (I don’t), enjoy your doobie and have a good cry. I’m also glad I don’t live in California.
Tunnels are dark and often wet, hot, and humid. They can contain tight spaces, low overhead clearances, and present a range of explosive and toxic environmental challenges. All of these impediments are enhanced by poor visibility, darkness, impeded sight lines, and amplified noise (echoes) facilitating sensory decrements that inhibit maneuver, engagement, and situational awareness. Tunnels also degrade intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance complicating tactical and operational decision-making. In addition to tactical challenges found in all confined space operations, illicit taps bring an additional explosion hazard both within the tunnel and in proximate inhabited spaces.
It reminds me of the tunnel in Sicario, except not as well-constructed.
I think I’ve said this before, but this poses not just a tactical challenge to anyone, regardless of persuasion, but a challenge to life as well.
This is a confined space. It has the following hazards (not an all-inclusive list): civil engineering (collapse of roofing or siding), access to breathable oxygen, lighting, noise, concentration of various bacteriological hazards (such as legionella), temperature, humidity, submergence during rain from flash flooding, concentration of explosive gases, concentration of explosive dusts, etc., etc.
Stay out of confined spaces. They mean death to you. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but I don’t go spelunking.
4 years, 5 months ago
