Episode 111 - You thought Syria was over? Nope. Why Walls Work, and Why WE Need One.

You thought Syria was over?  Nope.  Why Walls Work, and Why WE Need One.  That's coming up on Today's Hot Zone.

 

Hi folks!  When I left Syria back at the end of February, the last stand of ISIS was almost at an end.  Just a few weeks later, their last stronghold of Baghouz fell to Syrian Democratic Forces - that's the Kurds, and the last exhausted fighters and their families gave themselves up.  Good news.

 

Well I've been saying for a long time that even once ISIS was defeated in Syria, the show wouldn't be over.  In fact, it doesn't even mean the end of ISIS.  First off, there's the problem of what to do with the more than 70,000 ISIS wives and their children who are now languishing in camps without enough food, clean water or medical care.  The SDF fighters guarding the camps say they can't sustain that amount of people without a lot of help from the US government, and inside the camp they are enforcing sharia law and self-radicalizing even more, and most of those women believe they will soon reconstitute ISIS and continue terrorizing the world.  

 

Many of the men - the fighters who belonged to ISIS were not captured or killed, but made their way north to Turkish territory and will certainly have to be dealt with at some point.  Make no mistake - Recip Tayep Erdogan is not our ally in this fight.  He is straight up muslim brotherhood and supports ISIS ideologically.  It is mind boggling to me that as recently as 2016 we had up to 50 nukes at incirlik air base in Turkey.  Word is that they were moved to Romania, but Incirlik is still home to over 5,000 US troops.

 

Anyway, Now that ISIS has been routed from Southern Syria, Bashar Al Assad can now turn his attention to rooting out other insurgent elements in the north.  In recent days there has been heavy fighting in the Idlib region of Syria as Assads forces backed by Russian and Iranian muscle have battled rebel elements that are aligned with Al Qaeda.  The Syrians are dropping barrel bombs and Russian fighter jets are pounding the area, with the predictable result that hundreds of civilians have been killed and more than 150,000 have fled the area.  So unfortunately for the people of Syria, it looks like the end of their misery is nowhere in sight.  This violence will continue as Russia, Turkey, Iran, the Kurds and oh yeah, Syria all jockey for control of the region.

 

Please pray for my friend Dave Eubanks and his crew as they continue to work in that area.  It's still incredibly dangerous and the free burma rangers are continuing to treat those who are hurting.  But they need support to do so, so if you're inclined to help, please go to freeburmarangers.org.

 

Okay, on to the US Southern border.  The numbers just came out for the month of April, and things are dramatically worse than even the month before.  In fact, every month this year has seen about a thirty percent increase in enforcement actions along the border from the month before.  Did you hear that?  The number of people arriving at our southern border is going up thirty percent PER MONTH.  Over 109,000 people were apprehended in April.  About ten percent were unaccompanied minors.  

 

As it gets hotter down there, more and more of these crossers need medical attention when they arrive at our border.  The other day, for example, the border patrol had to rescue this mexican man off the top of a mountain in the desert because he was too exhausted to walk anymore.  Do you have any idea what this costs us?  That black hawk helicopter costs over $25,000 an hour to fly.  Just think about that for a minute.  This ONE illegal who is flaunting our laws to get into the United States cost American taxpayers over 25 grand.  And do you know how many rescues like this the Border Patrol has conducted this year?  Try TWO THOUSAND.  

 

One of the reason migrants come here is that they know they will be treated for free at the hospital if they cannot pay.  This year the Border Patrol estimates it will apprehend over 31,000 people who are in immediate need of medical care - who they will then have to transport to hospitals in the US, wait with them while they are treated, and then transport them to a detainment facility.  So far this year that's cost the border patrol more than 57,000 man hours - which cost the American taxpayer over 2.2 MILLION dollars in salaries alone, in addition to the cost of medical care.  

 

Listen to Border Patrol Chief Brian Hastings describe the problem further:

 

These huge groups of migrants are coming because they know that they can get in.  And they know their window may be closing, despite the best efforts of democrats to stop the construction of a border wall.  The truth is, the wall is under construction and wherever it goes up, illegal crossings go down.  Take a look at this package put out by the border patrol about the new wall being built near Calexico california.

 

[Border Package]

 

Folks, this has to happen.  Trump campaigned on it, and if he doesn't get it done in his first term it won't be for lack of trying.  What does it say about our system when a federal judge in Hawaii can block the US president from taking steps to safeguard the American people?  What does it say when left-wing organizations including some funded by the UN and george Soros can create an infrastructure across latin america to make it easier and quicker for migrants to make their way 4000 kilometers north to the US border?  What does it say about our culture when mainstream media outlets put out infomercials in latin america explaining the process of illegal migration and how to take advantage of sanctuary cities?  This is more than a humanitarian crisis.  IT's more than a crisis of national security.  This is an existential crisis for the United States of America.

 

Okay, lastly today, let's talk about what happened last week when the US suddenly scrambled military forces to the middle east at the request of CENTCOM commander General Frank McKenzie.  This was based on Iranian threats to U.S. military uncovered by recent US intel reports which showed Iran activating some of its proxies and repositioning forces, apparently in preparation for attacks on US interests, both at land and at sea.  Well that's not good.  We don't want war with Iran, but in reality, I believe that's going to have to happen at some point.  Every president has sort of kicked that can down the road, but unless the sanctions can be enforced with enough vigor to choke out that rogue nation, sooner or later we're going to have to confront them militarily, and when we do let's hope the President has the courage to go hard against them and hurt them so badly it will take them decades to recover.

 

In reality that almost happened back in 2016 when the IRGC captured two small navy boats with ten US sailors on board, after their boats developed engine trouble and drifted into Iranian waters.  Apparently there was a very forceful exchange between the Obama administration and the Iranians, Where John Kerry called his Iranian counterpart and basically told him "you are going to release them unharmed immediately or this is about to get real."  After fifteen hours, the Iranians finally complied, but not before releasing this humiliating video of our sailors kneeling on the deck of their boats with their hands behind their heads like they were about to be executed.  This was a definite PR loss for the United States, but that was common during the Obama Administration.

 

Anyway, let's hope Iran backs down this time - I think the show of force by the Trump Administration sent the right message to the mullahs in tehran.  Mess with the bull, you are going to get the horns.

 

That's all we have for today folks.  I appreciate you watching.  Please like and share this podcast - help me get the word out and it'll help me keep bringing  you factual and timely reporting from hot zones around the globe.  

 

I'm Chuck Holton.  see you tomorrow.