The Coalition of the Swilling

Just some Mexicans doing the beheading that American's aren't willing to do.

Anybody want to bet that congress won't give a tinker's damn?

Good grief. What a petty complaint. When they get to the level of threat beyond middle school stunts, then I'll be concerned.

Well, everyone knows that Border Patrol agents aren't Marines, Skyler, but most of them do try to defend the country in their quaint fashion.

Consequently, many Americans take a simple booby trap placed against Border Patrol agents along our southern border as seriously as IEDs directed against our troops in Iraq.

Shocking, I know, but some people are just funny that way.

Am I the only one that thinks this story smells like a plant by the anti Mexican movement? Sounds like the Texans et al are drumming up more hatred. There was probably no wire at all. I can't see why Mexicans would do that...when they get caught by BP they just turn around and go back the next day or week. It's not life and death to get caught.

Right, note that they say "if" it were pulled taut.

I can go to any dirt road in any part of the world and find wires lying across the road. Just think if all of them were pulled taut at the same time! Would that make a weapon of mass destruction?

This is a silly propaganda piece with little substance.

Mexicans are indigenous, get over it.

Not a problem, Skyler. Should this apparent provocation get ramped up, and a wire is ever be pulled tight in a similar fashion, and a head is removed, I'll just think, "Heck, Skyler wasn't worried way back when. Think nothing of it now!"

Congress is busy on hearing the steroid case; they won't be bother of this case because it is over their capability and pea size brain. Is it time to vote them out of the office; no, because American is still asleep with "made in China", "America for sale" and "illegal immigrant" and so on. American, please think about your children, grandchildren and next generation and most of all => your beloved country, the USA then wake up!

Nat, you ignoramous, "Mexicans" are as 'indigenous' as anyone else who got here in the 15-1600's and conquered/assimilated most of the native peoples. Nice try.

My point, real Jeff, is that there's no evidence that this is what the wire was for. It's just a wire on a dirt road. This is being sensationalized.

BP agents should have cars anyway.

Hmmmmm.

People don't string wires *taut* for no reason at all.

And I'll point out that smugglers have a profit incentive to intimidate the BP.

The wire was not taut. It was just a wire lying on the ground.

It was on a path between the fences normally patrolled by agents on ATVs due to space restrictions; there's no other reason to hang a wire there (it's hardly for drying laundry, after all).

And "laying on the ground" does not mean it was always on the ground; the person who installed might have been incompetent, but that doesn't negate their intent, be it killing or intimidating a BP agent. Terrorism (on any scale) can be funny that way, especially if they decide to escalate their attacks.

Skyler, I can just imagine you finding an IED that failed to explode because the maker screwed up the assembly. "Hah, what's the problem here? It's just a dud next to the road. No one's hurt, so don't worry about it. What, call it in to the TOC? That'll just get everyone excited; no need to sensationalize this, take a grid, and we'll report it during the de-brief. Everyone, move out!"

We got any of them "bouncing bettys" left over from 'Nam?...

It most certainly was not "just a wire lying on the ground". That's nonsense.

"The wire stretched across the border road and led into Mexico through a hole in the primary fence..."

That's a trap waiting to be sprung and I wouldn't be so cavalier about it, Skyler. It doesn't happen often, but every few years up here a snowmobiler or someone on an ATV hits a wire/cable in the dark and is seriously injured or killed. No, it shouldn't be blown out of proportion, but it shouldn't be so blithely dismissed either.

Real Jeff, you'rr invited to Texas if you want to say that to my face.

Dave, I'm not intending to sound dismissive, but the border patrol has little credibility, and this is hardly the type of incident to get put on the national news. It stinks of propaganda and it's heartening, in fact, that this is the worst they could come up with.

My point, Skyler, is that a threat is a threat, whether it be an IED or a simple snare. The situation might change, but threats do not. Allowing them to escalate is not a smart thing.

You're blowing this potential threat off for whatever reason, something that I am more than a little sure that you would NOT do if it involved the safety of your Marines.

YOU are less than worried about the safety of other Americans who put their safety on the line. Perhaps not to the same degree as Marines (although this might be changing, if the Mexican military is getting as bold as some reports have it), but they remain on the front lines none the less.

So I expressed it in terms that you MIGHT listen to, in a straw man argument. That you might not like the way I said it is something that I really don't care about.

Should we ever come face to face, feel free to swing. I don't promise not to fight dirty.

BTW, it's obvious that we don't agree on the credibility of the Border Patrol. I agree that they aren't a first rate organization, but that doesn't mean they don't face a potential threat along our borders. Nor that this report is not credible, especially given other incidents along the border.

IMHO, your bias is clouding your judgment on the matter.

So, whatever, dude. Enjoy your alternate reality.

Yes, I'm biased. The BP is a shoddy outfit, only slightly better than the ATF, both of which are known for their corruption, their lies, and their incompetence.

This is a simple threat easily defeated by putting agents in enclosed vehicles rather than letting them hot dog around on dirt bikes. If they were my troops I would do that and everything would be fixed.

The threat of a wire lying on the ground that some prevaricating BP agent claims might someday be raised for the imagined purpose of harming some hotdogging BP agent, who should be in a vehicle not a dirt bike, is pretty inconsequential compared to bombs that melt tanks like the ones I've encountered. It's a laughable comparison.