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Letter: Rubber turkey concept could work on border

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 | 7:07 a.m.

For a photo op, President Bush used a rubber turkey when he was shown serving our troops a Thanksgiving dinner while serving in Iraq.

Now Mr. Bush is pushing to have 6,000 National Guard troops assigned to the border. These troops would be handcuffed, having no authority to arrest or retain illegals, but used for odd jobs and to exhibit a military presence.

The cost and logistics would be enormous, since it would involve bringing in 6,000 troops from all over the U.S. and spreading them along various border posts. Including round-trip travel to and from their home base and the border post, the total assignment time is about two weeks, then another 6,000 rotate in for a couple weeks, and so on.

Why not use the rubber turkey idea and use 6,000 troop mannequins armed with solar flashlights and spread them in key border areas? It would certainly be more cost effective and the mannequins would exhibit a military presence 24/7 with only the need of a periodic touch-up.

Maybe the mannequin idea is dumb, but is it the dumbest?

Roger Glazbrook, Las Vegas

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