The things I miss while I'm away....

If reports like this are correct, the United States is under invasion at the border -- not in the civilian sense by aliens from Mexico, but by the Mexican military. And the U.S. government is doing, well, basically nothing. Unless you consider warning the border patrol to stay out of the way to be doing something:

The U.S. Border Patrol has warned agents in Arizona of incursions into the United States by Mexican soldiers "trained to escape, evade and counterambush" if detected -- a scenario Mexico denied yesterday.

The warning to Border Patrol agents in Tucson, Ariz., comes after increased sightings of what authorities described as heavily armed Mexican military units on the U.S. side of the border. The warning asks the agents to report the size, activity, location, time and equipment of any units observed.

It also cautions agents to keep "a low profile," to use "cover and concealment" in approaching the Mexican units, to employ "shadows and camouflage" to conceal themselves and to "stay as quiet as possible."

Border Patrol spokesman Salvador Zamora confirmed that a "military incursion" warning was given to Tucson agents, but said it was designed to inform them how to react to any sightings of military and foreign police in this country and how to properly document any incursion.

What the hell is the problem?

While historically uninformed people often say that Rome fell because of things like sodomy, a very compelling case can be made that a major cause of the actual collapse (and subsequent sacking) of Rome was undefended borders.

Arguably, Rome was no longer capable of defending its borders, because by the time of the barbarian invasions their military was in tatters. This is not true of the United States.

Perhaps the failure to do anything can be attributed to denial. Mexico certainly denies any connection with the soldiers involved, (claiming instead that they're rich drug dealers dressed up to look like military):

Rafael Laveaga, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, denied that Mexican military personnel are crossing into the United States.

"I strongly deny any incursions by the Mexican military as inaccurate allegations," Mr. Laveaga said. "The Mexican military is a well-respected institution with strict rules on how to control Northern Mexico. It maintains a protocol of not going within a mile of the border, and those who would trespass would be severely punished."

Mr. Laveaga said some drug smugglers headed "both north and south" wear uniforms and drive military-type vehicles, and might have "confused" U.S. authorities.

Because of political considerations, I seriously doubt the Bush administration will do anything like that, unless the Mexicans start shooting U.S. citizens.

Interestingly enough, while I was in Nassau I was startled to discover (by reading, listening to talk radio and talking to locals) that the country has its own serious problem with illegal aliens. Mostly from impoverished Haiti, they come to the Bahamas do to the grunt work that affluent Bahamians no longer want to do. The prisons are full of Haitians; according to an account I read down there, Haitians make up a full 90% of the prison population. But for the Haitians, the Bahamas would be relatively free of crime. This stuff is not often disclosed to tourists (officially, it's a very sensitive issue), but anyone can turn on a radio or talk to ordinary citizens.

Unlike the United States, where illegal aliens are recognizable, it's very difficult to tell who is Haitian unless you talk to them. Once I stopped to ask a man for directions, and he refused to answer, which is very uncharacteristic of Bahamians, who are invariably friendly to tourists, and who will go out of their way to help. I saw a look of fear flash across his face as he shook his head "No" and ran away from me, so I'm pretty sure he was an illegal Haitian.

Illegal immigration is a mess all around. Miserable people love to leave their hellholes, and there's nothing more attractive than affluence.

The ugly fact is that nobody wants to live in places like Haiti.

Aside from a few cranks who believe in defending borders (often unfairly lumped in with ultra-nationalists, if not racists), I think affluent people tend not to care until their affluence itself is threatened.

They forget history.