Presented (almost) without comment, this thought from Texas Governor Rick Perry (R-Confederacy)
When host Chuck Todd then asked Perry if the U.S. military should cross the border to help Mexico combat drug cartels, Perry said “we have to have use every aspect of law enforcement that we have, including the military.”
“Obviously, Mexico has to approve any type of assistance that we can give them,” Perry said. “But the fact of the matter is these are people who are highly motivated, with money, they are vicious, they are armed to the teeth. And I want to see them defeated. And any means we can to run these people off our border and to save Americans’ lives, we need to be engaged in.”
There are no problems anywhere in the world, inhabited by anyone, speaking any language, that a dose of heavy ordnance won’t cure. After all, ithis approach has been going so well lately.
Image: Batalla de Monterrey, 1855
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
There’s a certain residence in the capital here in Texas that a dose of ordinance would do wonders for.
cleek
the only thing those people understand is force. and once there, we’ll be greeted as liberators. freedom. tequila. sexy.
beltane
Remember the Alamo? Rick Perry doesn’t.
Eric S.
U.S. Military does not equal Law Enforcement
Edited as the less than / greater than sign doesn’t work in html. Forgetful, forgetful, Eric.
Pangloss
Fits in with newly-elected Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) who proclaimed Manifest Destiny as one of the 28 founding principles of the United States.
P.S. We’re doomed.
P.P.S. Doomed, I tells ya’!!
burnspbesq
I would be perfectly OK with Texas seceding from the Union.
frogspawn
Pancho Villa, bitches!
Davis X. Machina
I thought these guys hated Woodrow Wilson — and now they want to emulate him? I’m confused.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Pangloss:
That’s not a principle, that an Ayn Rand novel.
ETA: With principle 25, is he advocating bringing all of our troops home and shrinking our military?
Brachiator
In 1916 US Army General John J. Pershing was sent to Mexico to capture Pancho Villa. He spent nine months trying.
Couldn’t do it.
Governor Perry needs to throw away his copy of “The Conservative’s Revisionist History of the Universe.” Nothing useful in it.
beltane
@Pangloss: Is this the same Joe Walsh who sang “Life’s been good to me so far”?
Sentient Puddle
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): You do realize the governor’s mansion was moltoved a few years back, no?
New Yorker
Since when is the fucking military involved in law enforcement? Jesus, they really do want to remake the US in the image of Pinochet’s Chile, don’t they?
freelancer
@Pangloss:
Life’s been good to him so far.
Drat! Beltane beats me to the punch.
West of the Cascades
The image looks more like Commodore Perry at Edo (Tokyo) Harbor in 1853 than the “Batalla de Monterrey.” No harbor near Monterrey (at least not the one in Mexico).
BGinCHI
@beltane: In other news, the newly minted congressman from the Chicago suburbs has a Maserati that does, let’s see if I have this correct, 185. Sadly, he’s lost his license, and now he don’t drive.
jl
Not sure I get the reference to Battle of Monterrey.
Just a snarky reference to fact that Polk was upset that Taylor too generous to enemy in negotiating an armistice?
Or that after the U.S. victory in the war, Mexico dissolved into chaos, with a rapid succession of unstable central governments? I think for for short periods, the U.S. didn’t even bother with the facade of a puppet government, and just told government officials what to do.
The latter is the lesson I took. In that day, the U.S. could get the benefits of victory (land) and keep the cost (chaos in Mexico) at a distance. That cannot be the case today.
Zifnab
@Sentient Puddle: Allegedly moltov’d. After Perry had spent months begging and begging for the Texas Legislature to fund an overhaul of the place.
The Governor has been living large in his multi-million dollar backup mansion, so it’s not like he’s suffered for it.
All that said, it’s been shown time and again that anything on the US side of the border is far safer than the Mexican side. Case in point, El Paso has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.
namekarB
In a weird way, this only makes sense.
Instead of invading failed states halfway around the world, we should be invading failed states closer to home. In Mexico’s case, it may just be a matter of annexing them.
This would resolve the drug cartel problem and the immigration problem. Did I mention Mexico has oil reserves?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Sentient Puddle: Yes, but I was imagining it would be occupied when the event occurred.
Legalize
Which military, Governor Haircut? The Texas military? If not, kindly fuck the fuck off.
Crashman
Nice how he suddenly needs the Federal Government’s resources for something.
The Bearded Blogger
@beltane: Win.
@Davis X. Machina: Woodrow Wilson wanted the United States to intervene in world affairs in order to provide a just world order.
Republicans want the United States to intervene in world affairs.
SpotWeld
A thought for Rick perry
Let’s flip the equation.
Should Mexican military and police forces be allowed to come into the US to persue and attack drug criminals?
Crashman
@namekarB: Invading Mexico over Iran would save on fuel costs, at least.
Calouste
Well, at least Mexico is closer than Iran.
Other than that, does Perry have any kids who are going to volunteer for the military to face these “people who are highly motivated, with money, they are vicious, they are armed to the teeth. ” to “save Americans’ lives” (not their own presumably? No?
Lev
I want this guy to run for President. Didn’t he used to be a Jesse Jackson-supporting Democrat? Fuck me, that’s such a huge flip-flop that Mittens can’t even beat it.
Zandar
The problem the conservatives have yet to answer is who’s going to provide the cheap labor to build the dirt ramps for us to jump the Rio Grande with our tanks so we can blast Dixie and yell YEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAW while doing it.
The Bearded Blogger
The United States is not the giant it used to be. With growing media complacency, plutocracy, polarized and ideologized politics, unwise foreign engagements and general wastefulness and ineptitude, it is not the superpower it used to be.
If it comes down to USA vs the combined forces of the Tijuana and Juarez cartels, my money is on the cartels. Si se puede!
JGabriel
Since there’s no more unpaid, racially based, slavery — just the wage kind — I say it’s time to let the South go.
Let Texas, Arkansas, and the rest of Dixie split off into their own bastard mix of ante-bellum, Christian Fundamentalist, Randianism, leaving the rest of us to create our own little functional social democrat utopia.
.
The Bearded Blogger
@Lev: whut!? for realz?
@Zandar: Nice image
JGabriel
Spotweld:
An even better question might be: Should Mexican military and police forces be allowed into the US to pursue the arms dealers and gun merchants who supply Mexico’s drug warlords?
.
morzer
But the fact of the matter is these are people who are highly motivated, with money, they are vicious, they are armed to the teeth.
And they are different from the Republicans – how exactly?
fourlegsgood
@Lev: No you DO NOT want him to run. He’s so stupid that in a contest between him and a post turtle, he’d lose, because he’s dumber than the actual post.
Unfortunately he’s also very telegenic, charming and the teabaggers love him. He’d be a president so awful that he’d make us actually miss chimpy.
Rosalita
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
I thought you were referring to Casa Bushie
Steeplejack
@West of the Cascades:
Battle of Monterey (California), 1846.
ETA: FYWP!
BGinCHI
@Zandar: Um, Mexicans, obviously.
West of the Cascades
@Steeplejack: awesome, thanks!
The Bearded Blogger
@fourlegsgood: Oh Perry is running, and winning, probably. He captures the current US zeitgeist/volkgeist/poltergeist perfectly. He’s the man of the hour.
JGabriel
Commentz Win, Tie: Beltane & Morzer.
.
Gus
“Any means necessary” except the one that would help, legalization.
morzer
@Lev:
Repentance (without consequences) is big among the Talibangelicals. Perry just has to yip about seeing the light and all will be forgiven. Basically, these people are Carpocratean Gnostics:
morzer
@beltane:
Give him time and he’ll tell you won the Battle of the Armadillo alongside Ronald Reagan.
morzer
@The Bearded Blogger:
Actually, Perry is the national poltergeist. Lots of noises and upset furniture, but nothing there when you take a closer look.
Poopyman
@fourlegsgood: Eww, yuck! Who’d want to have a beer with that guy?
Linda Featheringill
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
[#9]
Au contraire, that is a Rule of Acquisition.
thoughtcrime
Gov. Goodhair didn’t learn any lessons from the Bush era.
If our citizens are attacked on US soil by criminals originating from Mexico, we should invade Venezuela.
Nutella
@Steeplejack:
And that was the second time the US Navy made an unauthorized raid on Monterey California. Thomas ap Catesby Jones seized Monterey in 1842 but he had to give it back the next day.
They didn’t greet him as a liberator, either.
kdaug
@thoughtcrime: Incorrect. Goodhair learned all the right lessons – he knows who the PTB are to shack up with.
Perry/Palin? Man, that just EXUDES stardom. The networks will eat it up. (Sorry, Todd).
PeakVT
But the fact of the matter is these are people who are highly motivated, with money, they are vicious, they are armed to the teeth.
Why does Perry want to keep these tireless entrepreneurs from making a profit?
Zifnab
@morzer: I wish. You don’t have to look much farther than all the toll road construction, the massively inflated tuition rates, and the non-existent government services to really hate that guy.
Perry and Bush have been the ban of Texas for nearly a generation. The low tax based drew in a bunch of corporate headquarters, and that’s kept Texas rich and happy for a while. But the gravy train has to let off somewhere. Our $25 billion state budget shortfall is going to make that stop sooner than we like to think.
kdaug
@Zifnab:
Aaand – that’s why we have to “opt out” of Medicaid.
morzer
@Zifnab:
Out of interest, is Texas going Hispanic? I seem to remember demographers speculating that in the not too distant future Texas might turn an interesting shade of Hispanic blue.
MTiffany
I wonder if this douchewaffle has ever even heard of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. Probably has, just doesn’t like the federal government telling itself what if can (or can’t) do with its own military.
Ash Can
@The Bearded Blogger:
There ya go.
Davis X. Machina
@The Bearded Blogger: But for that unfortunate incident in Sarajevo, the chasing of Messican bad guys around the SW would otherwise have been the extent of WW’s wartime presidenting….
Jrod the Cookie Thief
@The Bearded Blogger:
To WW, “just world order” meant “domination by the white race.” Also, “stay out of the war in Europe” meant “join the war in Europe.”
No reason to lionize a worthless piece of shit like Wilson.
bjacques
Nein! Nein! Das ist falsch!
Well, I’d be happy for some of Perry’s dipshits to reenact the Mier expedition and then have the Mexican army make them draw beans to see who gets shot. By “Mexican army,” I mean “the Zetas” and by “drawing beans” I mean “having their heads chopped off and shoved up their asses.”
bcinaz
is he refering to Mexican Drug Lords or the Koch Brothers and the US Chamber of Commerce?
Suffern Ace
What a stupid question from Chuck Todd. Well, at least Perry allowed for the fact that Mexico would need to give permission for U.S. troops to enter the country, and I’m certain that in reality, Mexico would agree to no such thing. But I guess it is worthwhile to plan for the contingency that the government of Mexico would want such a thing even as it is having one heck of a crises with drug gangs.
It’s great to talk tough about stuff like that. For instance, I would definitely kick Mike Tyson’s ass if I ever met him in an alley. Unfortunately, I never walk through alleys so the speculation is rather much a waste of time.