Has the National Guard been told to CUT & RUN?

"Cut & Run," a phrase used by the Bush administration to describe how the Democrats would handle the Iraq War, now seems to have become official policy for the Bush Administration, as far as our own southern border is concerned!

Apparently, four armed men, wearing paramilitary uniforms, crossed into the United States near an observation outpost of the U.S. National Guard, sent there eight months ago.

As the gunmen approached, the Guardsmen, following their "rules of engagement," ran away to avoid the encounter.

What? The National Guard ran away rather than interdict an armed incursion onto U.S. soil? Ran away from possible terrorists bent on killing Americans? What the Hell is going on here?

A Border Patrol official says the National Guard troops acted appropriately when they abandoned their post near the border southwest of Tucson as the four gunmen approached from Mexico.

"It's the nearest that Guard members have come to an armed conflict on the border since spring when President Bush pledged up to 6,000 troops to help slow illegal immigration along the United States' 1,950-mile southern border."

The National Guard, following their orders, retreated and called for the Border Patrol to go after the invaders. The BP agents responded within minutes and scoured the area by helicopter and on the ground, but the gunmen were not located.

Roughly 5,700 Guard members now are stationed along the border, more than a quarter of whom are in Arizona.

Editor's note: The program for putting National Guard troops, on the border was named "Operation Jumpstart" in that it is supposed to secure the border while the administration built up the Border Patrol.

It was nothing more than an election stunt and a terrible waste of taxpayer's money. it should have been named "Operation Too Little and Too Late," especially now, when we know they aren't going to interdict even armed paramilitary incursions and they certainly aren't going to build a fence.

America needs to stop trying to solve the world's problems and address a few of our own major problems. It's time to tell South Korea to stop making cars and start making tanks and fallout shelters because we are taking our army home and putting them on our own border where they belong!