It is too much work and fiscally irresponsible.
However, a minefield…
By Miguel.GFZ
Semi-retired like Vito Corleone before the heart attack. Consiglieri to J.Kb and AWA. I lived in a Gun Control Paradise: It sucked and got people killed. I do believe that Freedom scares the political elites.
9 thoughts on “Seriously people, stop that “Wall with Mexico” crap.”
Comments are closed.
What about the price of replacing the mines once they’re tripped?
Not that expensive to replace… Asset forfeiture from drug cartels.
The problem with minefields is not in replenishing them, it’s in what to do with them after you’re done. Minefields, sadly, last forever.
There you go… More positive things. j/k
Well in fairness, if you *want* it to last forever, yeah, minefields are great. Don’t even need maintenance, because nobody knows how many mines are still out there.
Minefields are scary, man. Hope I never have to go through one.
Back when Omni still had a staple in it, one of their humorous ‘afterword’ columns was by Larry Niven on the theme of alternate means of disposing of radioactive waste. His favorite was coining money out of it (pickpocketing becomes self-punishing, money circulates FAST, et cetera) but the one I liked was to dump it- unshielded- as a barrier between the US and Mexico, with one single fence on either side and a bunch of signs that say “IF YOU CROSS THIS LINE YOU WILL DIE”.
Modern mines are programmable and can be activated and deactivated remotely. So, we can mine the border, deactivate sections for boarder patrol activities, then reactivate when the good guys move on. If we don’t need it later, we can either just disable the entire field or remotely destruct them. Mines can also be chained to take out larger sections if one is tripped, and can easily be replaced since that section can be remotely disabled for maintenance activity. And, of course, there is a large variety of very interesting, purpose-built mines.
All that said, it’s hard to beat the old-fashioned Claymore for overall effect.
How long do the batteries last?
Depends on the system, but quite a while. Once the batteries run down, under modern protocols, the mine is inoperative. That way, even if a minefield is abandoned after a war, it’s harmless to civilians. Periodic maintenance would be required for long-term use. Sections of mine fields could be alternated but overlapped so that batteries, etc., would be on sequenced maintenance schedules while maintaining overall effectiveness.