Friday, January 09, 2004

 
Strategic Retreat or Prelude to Collapse?

Of course, like Dennis Miller, this is just my opinion and I could be wrong.
In the movie "Battle of the Bulge" "Colonel Hessler"(played by Robert Shaw) observes zumtink like "ze Americans are learning how to retreat." That retreat, as we all know, turned out well, with the germans having expended men and material which might have otherwise been used to defend, for awhile, the Siegfried Line.
On the other hand, I recall reading that one of the "strategic withdrawals" of the Nazis from part of the Soviet Union actually *increased* their line of defence. And the strategic retreat of ARVN forces from the Central Highlands quicklyturned into a rout.Strategic retreats have not only military, but also often powerful psychological consequences for those retreating and advancing.
Given the strenght of U.S. armed forces and the number of firearms in private hands here, the pyschological consequences to the general population, bureaucrats, law enforcement agents, and potential immigrants, while difficult to predict, are of greater importance. I don't know, nor perhaps anyone know, how much current INS activities or perception of same, act as a deterent to emigration from not only Hispanic countries but from all over the globe. Anectdotal evidence(much in evidence on NRO)suggests that the INS can make life miserable for those wishing to immigrate legally. I don't know the consequence of a collapse of whatever exertions are being made by bureaucrats or of decisions made en masse by those now engaged in the process of legally immigrating to no longer make the effort to comply with the law. Peter Brimelow noted that in the 19th century the tiny island of Ireland ran out of people to emigrate, but that Mexico, for example is much larger. It is noted from time to time on VDARE that even now some villages in Mexico have been essentially depopulated by emigration. One wonders though, what the word is already on Bush's proposal "on the street" or dusty paths of countless third world villages and teeming megaopolises of this small planet.
blah, blah, blah, -you probably got the whole idea by reading the title alone-
Perhaps not much will change, which is bad enough, but perhaps they will, faster than, as said by "Omar" in the remake of "Scarface," a rabbit[or Spears] gets, er, married.
Scary stuff, btw., regarding Brazil as well as Venezuela in "Castro's Venezuelan Piracy
By Lowell Ponte
Will Castro be allowed to turn Venezuela into a second Cuba?" on today's Frontpage magazine.com. Ya' gotta' wonder if they have some evil versions of Micheal Ledeen monitoring the amnesty proposal and saying "Faster, please!"