Letter: Borders still not secure two years after attacks

Friday, Nov. 7, 2003 | 6:15 a.m.

The Bush administration won't deign to explain why American taxpayers -- drowning in debt, ravaged by inflation and anxious about their own employment prospects -- should pay to train Iraqi workers. Nor has the administration explained why it appears more eager to secure Iraq's borders than our own.

The Iraqi Provisional Authority has asked for $150 million for Iraqi border control. "Without this investment," insisted the authority's request, "the nation will continue to be at tremendous risk of penetration by members of terrorist cells and other subversive organizations; smuggling will continue to bleed the revenues necessary for the Iraqi economy to stand on its own and Iraq will not be able to control its borders."

Much the same could truthfully be said about the United States. Two years after the most devastating terrorist attack in our history, our borders remain wide open. To cite but one telling example: An estimated 1,000 illegal immigrants pour into our nation daily via Arizona's Organ Pipe National Monument, where 28-year-old U.S. Park Ranger Kris Eggle was murdered in the summer of 2002 by an AK-47-toting illegal alien drug smuggler.

Tragically, in the Border War, the president of the United States stands firmly on the side of our nation's enemies.

FRANK M. PELTESON