Dear Editor:
Typically the Godless left seems to present walls as a thing of the past. In fact, border walls and fences are currently going up around the world at the fastest rate since the Cold War.
A study by the political scientists Ron Hassner and Jason Wittenberg revealed: Of the 51 fortified boundaries since the end of World War II, around half were constructed between 2000-14. Hassner and Wittenberg found that such boundaries/structures like the existing U.S.-Mexico border fence, the Israel-West Bank barriers and the Saudi Arabia-Yemen border fence tend to be constructed by wealthy countries seeking to keep out the citizens of poorer countries, and that many of these fortifications have been built between states in the Muslim world.
Historically, we have seen that building a wall requires a significant amount of money and time; reasons for the construction of walls vary.
By the early 1950s, the Soviet approach to controlling national movement, restricting emigration, was emulated by most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc, including East Germany. Consequently, the inner German border between the two German states was closed, and a barbed-wire fence erected. This resulted in Berlin becoming a magnet for East Germans desperate to escape life in the GDR, and also a flashpoint for tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. The emigrants tended to be young and well-educated, leading to the "brain drain" feared by officials in East Germany.
By 1960, the combination of World War II and the massive emigration westward left East Germany with only 61 percent of its population of working age, compared to 70.5 percent before the war. The brain drain of professionals has become so damaging to the political credibility and economic viability of East Germany that the re-securing of the German communist frontier was imperative.
By 1961, the Berlin Wall was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961-89. Constructed by East Germany, the wall completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin.
I don't care if you build a wall, moat or gator pit. In my opinion, leaving American borders unsecured is the same as leaving you front door unlocked. Walls and fences achieve their goals deterring illegal immigration, terrorism and drug smuggling when they're just one part of a broader strategy to control our borders, ports of entry, airports and sanctuary cities.
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