“To those who would submit to the rightful law and authority, all gentleness and forbearance; but to the petulant and persistent secessionists, why, death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better. Satan and the rebellious saints of Heaven were allowed a continuous existence in hell merely to swell their just punishment. To such as would rebel against a Government so mild and just as ours was in peace, a punishment equal would not be unjust.”
General William Tecumseh Sherman
President Trump has declared gangs like MS-13 and other, predominantly Hispanic gangs, to be at war with the United States through the importation of drugs and proliferation of violence in our cities.
Mimicking the limited actions and weasel words used during the events in Korea in 1950–they called it a Police Action, but there weren’t many arrests taking place during the amphibious landing at Inchon or the battle around the Chosin Reservoir–they think by not actually acting like it’s war, everything would seem fine. They want to pick and choose what to treat like acts of war and what to ignore.
Wars must either be fought to win or avoided at all costs. We’ve made such errors in the past. Let’s not make that mistake again. If this is war, declare it, fight to win it, and be done with it.
But let’s follow this declaration of gangs to be at war with the United States to its ultimate conclusion.
If gang members are enemy combatants–they do bear the markings and structure of an army with uniforms, organizational and command structure, and strategy to control territory–then anyone who collaborates with them is, under most definitions of warfare, an enemy as well.
From Wikipedia,
“Wartime collaboration is cooperation with the enemy against one’s country of citizenship in wartime.[1] As historian Gerhard Hirschfeld says, it “is as old as war and the occupation of foreign territory”.[2] The term collaborator dates to the 19th century and was used in France during the Napoleonic Wars. The meaning shifted during World War II to designate traitorous collaboration with the enemy. The related term collaborationism is used by historians who restrict the term to a subset of ideological collaborators in Vichy France who actively promoted German victory.”
If we are in a war, and I would agree we have been for a long time when one considers the misery and death caused by drugs, then why limit ourselves to half-measures?
If an American citizen belongs to a gang declared to be an enemy of the United States, they are collaborators and should be imprisoned, expelled, or, if necessary, terminated with extreme prejudice.
The meaning shifted during World War II to designate traitorous collaboration with the enemy.
During World War II, we forgot the importance of the Constitution and didn’t let it interfere with our protecting the country from those who’d wage war against us. We rounded up Japanese Americans and put them in camps to prevent their assisting the enemy in the war effort.
The Japanese attacked us. The Japanese wished us harm. The Japanese declared war with a dastardly attack on Pearl Harbor. They were Japanese, just look at them. They were thus logically assumed to be a threat.
It made perfect sense at the moment.
However, we are wiser now, or should be. We should reasonably expect a President and a Justice Department to understand the requirements of due process, be capable of gathering and presenting evidence to overcome the presumption of innocence or burden of proof in a deportation case, and convict or deport those involved in these actions against the United States.
But then again, if our President claims he didn’t understand the plain language of a 9-0 Supreme Court decision compelling the government to follow the law, maybe we are expecting too much.
Now in an attempt to assuage the reaction that I am criticizing the President because I am nothing but a left-leaning wacko who wants to flood the country with illegal aliens, encourage their participation in gangs as a cultural affirmation of their heritage, pay for their sex-change operation, fund drag queen dance lessons in kindergarten, and look the other way when they are forced into the drug business because of the lack of educational opportunity and workplace discrimination, let me say this.
If it were up to me, every single adult who comes here unlawfully and commits crimes should be deported, period. And that includes the very act of entering the country illegally, let alone other crimes. Some accommodation must be made for those brought here as children and are now adults. Most crimes have a statute of limitations.
But let’s not forget that we are a nation of immigrants.
A nation of immigrants who came here legally and made this country what it is.
A nation of immigrants whose determination, courage, and fortitude forged a nation like few other places on this planet.
A nation that understands immigration adds to us infinitely more than it costs us.
If we are in a war then we must act like it. For those among us who are addicted to the heroin, fentanyl, and other drugs brought into this country we must provide treatment and health care.
Maybe if we looked at drug addicts as the wounded in this war we’d see them in a different light.
If you are selling drugs in this country, you are a collaborator with the enemy and should be treated as such. The act of dealing drugs is an overt act of war. They should be treated as such, under the law, and imprisoned.
Perhaps this may be a valid reason to consider imprisoning American citizens in other countries. If they are aiding and abetting the enemy, let the enemy house them.
Just a side note. Of the top ten most dangerous gangs in the United States, all of them were formed here. And while several are predominantly Hispanic, immigration status is not a consideration.
MS-13, one of the more well-known gangs, was formed in the 1960s in Los Angeles to protect Salvadorans from other street gangs.
So we have a problem in defining where the enemy in this war actually comes from.
Another gang to make the list you may have heard of, the Proud Boys, is purely homegrown. But I’m pretty sure they do require citizenship, so I suppose they have that going for them.
The Writing of Joe Broadmeadow 
Very good article
Thanks
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Thank you
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