Edge of Battle

President. “Sam, do you think it’s a good idea to second-guess your field generals at this early stage of the game?” he asked in a low voice.

“You think I’m micromanaging this thing now, Russ?”

“That’s what it sounds like to me, yes, sir. Telling a one-star general which guns his infantrymen can carry…?”

“I’m responsible for what happens out there, Russ…”

“Trust your generals, sir. If Lopez thinks we need TOWs on the border to put the fear of God into the Mexican Army, let him. You put Lopez in charge—let him be in charge.”

Conrad thought for a moment, then shook his head. “This whole operation is controversial enough, Russ—I don’t want to complicate it further by putting major offensive weapons on the damned border. I’m taking enough heat by approving those robots out there—I’m not going to repeat the mistake by putting guided antitank missiles out there. Pull them out—quietly, but get it done.” Collier nodded and stepped back. “General, what’s your next move?”

“Sir, my staff and I feel that the activity at Rampart One has forced smugglers east into the Arizona deserts,” Lopez replied, “so we’re going to concentrate our next deployments in western and central Arizona. The Border Patrol will intensify patrols at the most well-known trails and watering holes, and the National Guard will start patrolling the border region itself.”

“‘Watering holes?’ Are you talking about bars and taverns?”

“Sources of drinking water, sir,” Lopez explained. “There are hundreds of watering holes throughout the deserts in the American South and Southwest. Some are over a hundred years old, set up by miners, ranchers, and conservationists. Some are deep year-round wells; others are little more than mud holes. Over the years various human rights or immigrant rights groups have set up solar-powered wells and portable water tanks to assist immigrants traveling through the deserts. Since they are obvious destinations for immigrants and smugglers, the Border Patrol watches those locations carefully; as a result, human rights groups move the tanks from time to time to throw off La Migra—what the illegals call the Border Patrol. The groups pass the word on the new locations through the migrant information grapevine.”

The President shook his head in frustration. “It’s damned hard to try to put a cap on illegal immigration when citizens in your own country are helping the ones we’re trying to control.”

“We’ll deploy three companies, nine platoons, of Arizona National Guard mobile troops to this next operating area, along with unmanned aerial reconnaissance aircraft and support forces,” Lopez went on. “Each platoon is responsible for patrolling roughly one hundred square miles of the border region. It’s not much: that equates to just one Humvee, two men, patrolling that acreage on each eight-hour shift, with the other units in ready position.”

“Seems like an impossible task, General.”

“We’ll concentrate on known trails and rely on UAVs to spot migrants over the horizon,” Lopez said. The tone of his voice definitely indicated that he agreed, but he would never admit that to the commander in chief. “The more troops we have, of course, the better, but we think we can do the job at this current manpower level.”

“We have very little choice, sir—we’re stretched pretty thin as it is,” Ray Jefferson interjected. “General Lopez is already talking about ten National Guard companies, about a thousand soldiers, deployed to the border region—but that’s for a maximum of thirty days, and a recommended tour of two weeks. So we need at least two thousand soldiers a month at our current manning level, which as the general said is only a ten percent increase.”

The President thought for a moment, then looked directly at each of his advisers in the Oval Office. “What are the alternatives, gentlemen?” he asked. “Sergeant Major?”

“In my opinion, sir, General Lopez doesn’t have enough of the tools he needs to get the job done,” Jefferson said immediately. “His plan calls for the use of only seven National Guard battalions—two from California, three from Texas, and one each from Arizona and New Mexico. Although we’d only be using each company for two weeks, and by law we can use these forces for up to sixty days on an ‘emergency’ basis, they’ll be exhausted after just one or two rotations. We need more troops to maintain even this low level of commitment.”

“So what’s your recommendation?”

“My previous recommendations stand, sir: transfer the Army and Air National Guard bureaus into the Department of Homeland Security instead of the Pentagon; federalize as many units as the states think they can support; and completely reinforce the northern and southern borders and the coastlines.”

“And I’ll renew my disagreement with that recommendation, Mr. President: we can’t just yank over four hundred thousand Army and Air National Guard troops away from the Pentagon, even for something as important as homeland security,” Secretary of Defense Russell Collier said. “It would throw our entire ground military force structure into complete chaos.”

“We’re in a declared state of war since the Consortium attacks, sir—this is the perfect time to make that commitment,” Jefferson said. “I’m positive we’re in a fight against the Consortium, but the Consortium’s activities have switched from attacks against Trans-Global Energy facilities to massive and violent border incursions in order to infiltrate large numbers of men, weapons, and supplies covertly into the United States…”

“There’s no evidence yet of any massive incursions, Jefferson, and scant evidence that the Consortium is involved,” Attorney General George Wentworth interjected. “Yes, the incursions have become more violent recently, but I believe that’s in response to us arming the border. They’re still going to try to come across—but now they’re arming themselves and shooting back.”

“And that is unacceptable to me, General Wentworth…!”

“As it is to me—but adding more fuel to the fire by sending in more troops is not the answer.”

“Then what do you suggest, George?” the President asked. “Let’s hear it.”

“Cancel the National Guard deployments immediately; stand down the units already in the field; ask Congress for an immediate appropriation for ten thousand new Border Patrol agents over the next three years, plus increased funding for unmanned aerial reconnaissance, electronic monitoring, and support from the Justice Department for more judges and detention facilities,” Wentworth responded immediately. “We don’t need the military to secure our borders. We’ve relied on the Border Patrol to do it for over eighty years—let’s beef them up and support them better, but have them continue their work. We can get congressional approval for such a plan—they’ll never buy off on an increased military presence on the borders.”

The President paused again, then looked at his Chief of Staff. “Tom?”

“Putting the military on the border is going to become an increasingly tense and difficult political and foreign relations problem, Mr. President,” Kinsly said. “With all due respect to the Border Patrol agents that were killed and the Mexican citizens and the American killed last night, I believe we’re overreacting by placing troops on the border. As General Lopez and the sergeant major have said, even if we fully implement a military response to this crisis, we won’t be able to completely cut off the flow of illegal migrants—they’ll just find another way to get in. There’s a societal and cultural dynamic here that we won’t be able to solve with government or military intervention.”

“And your recommendation?”

Kinsly glanced at the Secretary of Defense, then said, “Politically we can’t afford to stand down those troops already deployed to the border—it’ll make us look weak, like we caved in to President Maravilloso’s demands. They have to stay, at least for a month or two, assuming there are no more serious acts of violence. But after the furor dies down, they should be quickly and quietly withdrawn. No more military forces on the border”—he looked directly at the National Security Adviser and added—“and especially not the robots.

“I believe our policies should concentrate on fully implementing the guest worker visa program, and tougher penalties for employers who hire outside it,” Kinsly went on quickly. “We can continue to build detention facilities in the desert, but make it clear that we will follow the usual immigration and deportation guidelines. We can announce an expanded detention program for the OTMs—the ‘Other Than Mexicans,’ the ones from countries all over the world who we usually release with orders to appear, but who usually don’t. General Wentworth’s suggestion of about ten thousand more Border Patrol agents over three years is based on a legislative analysis taken not too long ago, indicating a lot of congressional support.”

“Mr. Kinsly, none of those programs solve the problem of terrorists and killers coming across the border,” Ray Jefferson said. “We can take on illegal immigration, sovereignty, border security, and antiterrorism problems all with one move: maintaining a large paramilitary presence on the borders…”

“We’re still not sure if we have a terrorist problem here, Sergeant Major, despite your enlightened guesswork,” Kinsly said. “With all due respect to the Border Patrol agent that survived and your instincts and