Joe Miller: East Germany a Model for Border Security

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

It's quite obvious that Mr. Miller has no clue what he's proposing here. It's even more disturbing that he makes such fcukheaded comments while claiming that he's seen the installation from the other side.

Joe Miller: Communist East Germany a Model for Border Security

The United States should borrow ideas from Communist East Germany to keep its borders secure, Alaska's Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller suggested at a town hall Sunday night.

"The first thing that has to be done is secure the border," Miller said when asked about illegal immigration into the United States, Alaskan blogger Steve Aufrecht first reported.

Miller continued, "East Germany was very, very able to reduce the flow. Now, obviously, other things were involved. We have the capacity to, as a great nation, secure the border. If East Germany could, we could."

The Tea Party-backed candidate, who is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, explained that he once served at the Fulda Gap, a point on the former East-West German border. East Germany's border troops were given orders to shoot anyone trying to flee East Germany.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Here's what Mr. Miller wants the US to emulate:

BY far the most visible and redoubtable monument to the cold war remains the 840-mile barricade of barbed wire, minefields, watchtowers and armed police that has constituted the frontier between divided Germany for two decades. In spite of the political détente that is expected to arise from the recent state treaty signed by the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, East German authorities are reinforcing the deadly barrier. In recent months, for example, workmen have been methodically replacing the barbed wire fences with new gratings; their mesh is too fine to climb.

Such grim improvements in the barrier are clearly designed to discourage East Germans, 871 of whom escaped last year, from interpreting détente as a license to flee to the West. Other recent innovations will relieve East German border guards of any problem of conscience they might have. Although guards are under orders to shoot to kill would-be escapees on sight, some have apparently looked the other way or deliberately avoided hitting their compatriots. The East Germans have now equipped sections of the barrier with automatic self-firing weapons, mounted on three levels so that anyone seeking to jump the fence will trigger a shower of bullets.

Where there are no self-firing weapons, second and third fences have been laid behind the frontier barrier with buried mines and a deep concrete-plated ditch between them. This type of fortification is intended to prevent a favorite escape maneuver: crashing through the barricade with a heavy car. Along certain sections of the border, the fences farthest away from the frontier are now equipped with electrified barbed wire that, when touched, alerts nearby border-control posts by optical and acoustical signals. Floodlights along populated sections of the frontier have long afforded West Germans a permanent panorama of escape attempts. Although such attempts have become suicidal, they are expected to continue. From now on, however, the new double barricades will help hide the spectacle from Western eyes.

[Danno 1,228]

It seems to me you are misrepresenting what he said... and meant.

He is what he said according to your report posted.

"The first thing that has to be done is secure the border,"

"East Germany was very, very able to reduce the flow. Now, obviously, other things were involved. We have the capacity to, as a great nation, secure the border. If East Germany could, we could."

Where did he say it was a "model" for us to copy?

[HeatDeath 430]

:facepalm:

Why didn't he just go and Godwin the border-security debate while he was at it? It would scarcely have done less damage to the side he claims to be speaking for.

On the assumption that Mr. Miller does, in fact, have enough brain mass to walk upright and chew gum at the same time, I'd be very interested to know if there's a the details of the money trail connecting him to people who would like to see the "secure the border" faction politically hobbled.

Edited October 19, 2010 by HeatDeath

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

It seems to me you are misrepresenting what he said... and meant.

He is what he said according to your report posted.

"The first thing that has to be done is secure the border,"

"East Germany was very, very able to reduce the flow. Now, obviously, other things were involved. We have the capacity to, as a great nation, secure the border. If East Germany could, we could."

Where did he say it was a "model" for us to copy?

Just as I said: the tea partiers - that includes you, Danno, have no idea what they're talking about. There was one single element that accomplished the securing of the German-German border and the stop of the flow of people: The 'no questions asked use of deadly force' against anyone venturing to try to cross. Few tried their luck regardless, fewer succeeded. There's no other lesson to be learned from the East Germany when it comes to border security than the shoot to kill, bomb to kill, use whatever means to kill anyone daring to cross.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

I do not think "very highly" of the tea party movement, but I agree with the 2 following premises:

1) The first thing that needs to be done is to secure the border. No point in figuring out what to do with the people if they still can come in as before. Before you add coolant to the radiator, make sure the leak is fixed.

2) It is simple to secure the border. Make me head of homeland security and within 1 year you won't have hardly any illegal immigrants coming in, or staying in the US without authorization. Piece of cake. But they don't want that. Companies want cheap labor that they can explore and dispose of easily.

If the President were to ask me for a plan to secure the borders, he would get it, a 3-point one that really works. It would (1) include a high fence and "secondary" measures, (2) high fines and jail time for employers who are caught hiring illegal immigrants, and (2) the requirement to show proof of legal presence not only when applying for a driver license or job, but when registering a car, insuring it, enrolling kids in school, etc.

Understand: even a 20-feet high fence would cost less than the drones we drop on the Afghan people.

[Danno 1,228]

Just as I said: the tea partiers - that includes you, Danno, have no idea what they're talking about. There was one single element that accomplished the securing of the German-German border and the stop of the flow of people: The 'no questions asked use of deadly force' against anyone venturing to try to cross. Few tried their luck regardless, fewer succeeded. There's no other lesson to be learned from the East Germany when it comes to border security than the shoot to kill, bomb to kill, use whatever means to kill anyone daring to cross.

While you do make some valid points about the East/West border, you did also misrepresent his words.

As for Tea Partiers,

You say they don't have an idea about what they are talking about..... to that I would reply -there sure are a lot of people listening.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

While you do make some valid points about the East/West border, you did also misrepresent his words.

As for Tea Partiers,

You say they don't have an idea about what they are talking about..... to that I would reply -there sure are a lot of people listening.

I didn't misrepresent his words at all. He's looking at East Germany for lessons on achieving border security whilst there isn't but one lesson to be learned from it - stop the flow by applying deadly force in an indiscriminate, no questions asked kind of way. That's how East Germany achieved it's border security.

As for the people that listen to the clueless, well, that's just a sad testimony for those listeners.

[Danno 1,228]

I think we can Both agree, Obama is a much better politician in that he would never use such imagery to promote one of his near-socialist agenda.

But this is when you get when you get away from the political class and go with.... oh I don't know West Point Grads.

[trillium13 84]

I'm all for border security, but to compare a wall between the US and Mexico to the Berlin Wall is simply ludicrous.

For one thing, the purpose of the Berlin Wall was to keep people IN, not OUT.

About the only comparison that could be reasonably made is that they are both walls. Or would be. The situations behind their construction are not even close to comparable.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I do not think "very highly" of the tea party movement, but I agree with the 2 following premises:

1) The first thing that needs to be done is to secure the border. No point in figuring out what to do with the people if they still can come in as before. Before you add coolant to the radiator, make sure the leak is fixed.

2) It is simple to secure the border. Make me head of homeland security and within 1 year you won't have hardly any illegal immigrants coming in, or staying in the US without authorization. Piece of cake. But they don't want that. Companies want cheap labor that they can explore and dispose of easily.

If the President were to ask me for a plan to secure the borders, he would get it, a 3-point one that really works. It would (1) include a high fence and "secondary" measures, (2) high fines and jail time for employers who are caught hiring illegal immigrants, and (2) the requirement to show proof of legal presence not only when applying for a driver license or job, but when registering a car, insuring it, enrolling kids in school, etc.

Understand: even a 20-feet high fence would cost less than the drones we drop on the Afghan people.

[Ban Hammer 13,470]

Understand: even a 20-feet high fence would cost less than the drones we drop on the Afghan people.

we drop drones on people?

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

I'm all for border security, but to compare a wall between the US and Mexico to the Berlin Wall is simply ludicrous.

For one thing, the purpose of the Berlin Wall was to keep people IN, not OUT.

Exactly.

So what would be needed is to reverse it, which is super easy.

Can we agree that a setup like the Berlin wall would make it virtually IMPOSSIBLE to enter the US from the Mexican side, outside of the checkpoints?

[trillium13 84]

Exactly.

So what would be needed is to reverse it, which is super easy.

Can we agree that a setup like the Berlin wall would make it virtually IMPOSSIBLE to enter the US from the Mexican side, outside of the checkpoints?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

The Dems will still lose. I am looking forwaward to November 2. How 'bout you Big Dog?