"WE ARE THE FACE OF OUR NATION"
BUMS ON THE BORDER
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER
As a regular traveler, I am prettymuch constantly dealing with borders, customs and airlines. In today’s world, this can be the worst part of any job or vacation with heightened security and chiseling airlines making life impossible for many. However, I fly in and out of Detroit and the bright spot in any trip has always been US Customs and Immigration at Metro airport. This is a great group of people, always polite and always a "welcome home".
However, the US Border with Canada in Detroit is something very different. I was at a weddling last week in Toronto. I drove from Detroit, stayed overnight with friends and drove back the next day. Canadian customs, sometimes a problem, were fast and cordial. However, on the way back into the US, our American customs were something else.
While attending the wedding reception, I was at the table with a group of Canadians who had one pet peeve, poor treatment by US Customs when they crossed the border. As the American at the table, I defended our boys at the border, assuming they were of the same ilk I regularly dealt with at the airports. I was wrong. I owe my Canadian friends an apology. They were right. We could put homeless people in uniform and improve the professionalism of our snarling and obnoxious uniformed clowns "protecting" us from our closest friends.
I hit the border in Detroit after crossing the Ambassador Bridge from Windsor, Ontario. We were obviously a suspicious bunch. The wait, although there were only a couple of cars in front of us, was over an hour. Nobody was searched, thus, we were wondering what the hell was going on. When it was finally our turn we found out.
My best guess is that the guy in the booth was either drunk or on drugs. The only other viable assumption is that it was an escaped mental patient. Two middle aged Americans driving a Mercedes SUV with a current Department of Defense registration on the windshield, passports and valid military ID should have missed any potential profile. The real problem was that this defender of America found it hard to believe that we were actually at a wedding. According to him, people don’t get married except in June.
This made us potential terrorists.
Please remember this, never use the "attended a wedding" excuse if you are planning to overthrow a government or invade a country. Tell them you are tourists or, as with Canada, looking for the Hockey Puck Museum.
Friends from Canada had been telling me for some time that we had hired crazy people to man our borders. I know that many of those working the Mexican border have had legal difficulties after throwing in with drug cartels and such. These numbers are not publicized but are very high.
With thousands of veterans homeless and unemployed, having a bum like this taking up the job a decent and highly qualified veteran could hold is simply unacceptable. If the idiot I met is a veteran, someone should refer him for needed treatment. However, it seemed to me that I was dealing with someone more likely to fall into the "airport spitter" category than the "veteran" group.
Considering only 2% of containers that come into the US are searched and trucks heading across the border from Mexico and Canada get one tenth the attention that tourists who may or may not have a Cuban cigar hidden in their underwear get, the phony show of bullying and idiocy we subject our Canadian neighbors to is even more useless.
Knowing that the same people set up the system we now have smuggled the Bin Laden family out of the US before they could be questioned by the FBI makes prettymuch everything we do ring hollow.
Since America’s economic collapse, all we can offer the world is our competence and good will. Showing our friends and neighbors we are ill mannered boorish fools is hardly a way of passing on this vital message.
Gordon Duff is a Marine Vietnam veteran and regular contributor on political and social issues.
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
ATTENTION READERS
We See The World From All Sides and Want YOU To Be Fully InformedIn fact, intentional disinformation is a disgraceful scourge in media today. So to assuage any possible errant incorrect information posted herein, we strongly encourage you to seek corroboration from other non-VT sources before forming an educated opinion.
About VT - Policies & Disclosures - Comment Policy
