In Nov., a roadside bomb killed a U.S. Marine. In response, the other Marines dragged people from a passing taxi and shot them dead, then broke into 2 nearby houses and killed the families inside. Alltogether, 24 people--non-combatant civilians-- were killed by the Marines. And according to reports after the incident, the people the Marines killed were called insurgents. That's because, the second a U.S. fired bullet, or a piece of shrapnel from a U.S.-dropped bomb enters a body, that person instantly becomes an insurgent. Even if as in the case mentioned, the dead person is a 3-year old child. It could be a farmer tending his crops, a store owner, a person sitting home eating dinner with no political affiliation, but if we kill you, you're a dirty insugent. It happened that way in Viet Nam too. If we killed you, you were Viet Cong, even if the 500-person hamlet you lived in was involved in nothing but farming, if we slaughtered every one in the village, they became Viet Cong by virtue of being killed by us. In Afganistan, everyone we kill there is called a militant or Taliban, even children. Recently we killed 8 children playing in a field and called it "self-defense". We drop bombs on apartment buildings--everyone inside was a taliban militant. We drop bombs on housing compounds. Every member of every family who dies becomes a taliban militant the instant our ordenence tears through their bodies.
This is nothing new. It's fear conditioning. Even if it's never said right out, which it may well be, these soldiers are conditioned to think everyone in iraq is their enemy. They've been slaughtering people at checkpoints since the war began. They've been dropping bombs on civilians since the war began. And just because you share citizenship to a nation with the people doing the killing, you don't need to refer to them as "we". Although I live in Canada I am an American citizen too, and I'd never dream of calling the troops "us". They're murderers, which I am not.
Why is there a difference theyre human - your borders are just petty little figments of the imagination to make some people feel like they own the place. Whose border is it? Yours or theirs? who said the land could belong to someone?
By saying things like, "Can I just come to London and say FUCK IT, this is MY country now? (you know what I'm saying)," you are mischaracterizing a massively complicated issue when it comes to immigration, illegal or otherwise. Consider for a moment the logistics necessary to do any of the three options you have listed. Many illegal immigrants have been here for many years and it would take splitting families that have legals and illegals in them. What would propose to do for families who have lost the primary bread-winner? What prisons built with what money will house the millions of illegals? How will a group of illegals be incorporated into the military? What about the issues of language differences (not all Spanish speakers speak the same dialect), level of education, work-skills? How should we plan for the impact these options will have on the economy as food prices rise dramatically because of the increased labor costs? Business interests have been more than willing to exploit illegal labor to reduce labor costs for decades. Increasing penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal workers at sub-minimum wages would likely be more effective at slowing the rate of illegal immigration. Second, until 1918, there was no such thing as "illegal" immigration--all it took was a relative here to vouch for an immigrant and you were in. Yes, my ancestors came through Ellis Island as well, but they did not need a law declaring English as the national language to know they needed to teach their children to learn English, and there was no such requirement to do so; it is simply very difficult to function in any country without at least a working knowledge of the native language. In addition, the optimal window for learning languages easily closes around puberty--it is unfair indeed to blame Latino/Latina immigrants who do not speak English when it is immensely more difficult to learn a language as an adult. I am not advocating illegal immigration; it is simply a far more complicated issue than just jailing or deporting 11 million people. I do agree with your last point that GWB and his "friends" will benefit from this anti-illegal immigrant movement. Companies will be able to make millions in profits selling products and technology to stop the so-called "browning" of America.
