Not-So-Secure Border Initiative

The $3.7 billion spent so far has bought a patchwork of sub-par technology that often can’t tell a terrorist from a tumbleweed.

Cameras and radars mounted on tall poles can be so shaken by the wind and blinded by the rain that they don’t see clearly. The radars report intruders where there are none. The cameras have trouble seeing and then transmitting images back to human monitors.

When it was begun in 2006, the Secure Border Initiative – called SBInet – was supposed to be completed early this year. But by the time that due date rolled around, the estimated date of completion had slid out to 2016.

This whole issue has always been a joke. I’ve certainly never been convinced than anyone calling the shots is at all serious about actually securing the border.

The new Block 1 SBInet needs a 70% identification rate to be deemed acceptable. That means that three in ten illegal crossers can get through unseen and it’s good enough.

That’s not the definition of “good enough” that I’m familiar with.

It’s clear that no one currently in power is going to do anything meaningful about this. That means different people need to be in power.

Here are a couple of additional items on the ongoing soap opera surrounding Turkey:

Israel-Turkey Rift Derails Defense Trade

The growing Israel-Turkey rift that culminated in Ankara canceling Israeli participation in a multinational exercise threatens to derail already declining defense cooperation between the two countries, said officials from both countries.

Israel plans to withhold export licenses for the sale of defense articles and services to Turkey, and demote the country’s standing from preferred to one that carries a presumption of denial, Ministry of Defense sources said.

On the flip side:

For Turkey and Israel, Common Interests Trump Tensions

The improbable relationship between Turkey and Israel has long stood as a unique model of pragmatic, strategic thinking in a region rife with instability, tension, and identity-based alliances. In recent months, however, growing strains between the Jewish state and its Muslim neighbor have come to light, leading some to believe their decades-old ties could reach the breaking point. And yet, if one looks more closely at the relationship, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that a break between the two countries is highly unlikely.

I hope so.

(Via Instapundit) Over at Real Clear World, Caroline Glick writes about How Turkey Was Lost to the West:

Once the apotheosis of a pro-Western, dependable Muslim democracy, this week Turkey officially left the Western alliance and became a full member of the Iranian axis…

On Monday, 11 Turkish government ministers descended on Syria to sign a pile of cooperation agreements with Iran’s Arab lackey. The Foreign Ministry didn’t even have a chance to write apologetic talking points explaining that brazen move before Syria announced it was entering a military alliance with Turkey and would be holding a joint military exercise with the Turkish military. Speechless in the wake of Turkey’s move to hold military maneuvers with its enemy just two days after it canceled joint training with Israel, Jerusalem could think of no mitigating explanation for the move.

Like many, I’ve long wondered just what, exactly, is really going on in Turkey and what things are going to look like down the road. It appears that we’re finding out that the shining example of “how things could be” is more than a little tarnished. And here’s a bit about something I think has been overlooked in the discussion about the hows and whys of the invasion and post-invasion phase of Iraq:

Until this week, both Israel and the US were quick to make excuses for Ankara. When in 2003 the AKP-dominated Turkish parliament prohibited US forces from invading Iraq through Kurdistan, the US blamed itself. Rather than get angry at Turkey, the Bush administration argued that its senior officials had played the diplomatic game poorly.

The 4th Infantry Division was supposed to enter from the north via Turkey, but the equipment stayed aboard ships in the Med and the troops stayed home until well after the invasion was on. They eventually entered from Kuwait after needing to shift to the Persian Gulf.

I wrote in March 2003, when the military aspect of the campaign was still fuzzy:

Neither do we know exactlty why the negotiations with Turkey failed to get us the access we wanted to pass the 4th Infantry Division through into northern Iraq. If the [military] plan is indeed seriously flawed, my opinion is that the largest error was not getting that access. If we weren’t going to get it, we should have shifted the 4th ID to Kuwait immediately.

Now, as it turned out, quick military victory was achieved without the invasion from Turkey. But I’ve wondered how things would have looked if it would have gone off as originally planned or, alternatively, if we had shifted the 4th ID immediately to Kuwait and had them available earlier in the campaign.

Is Turkey really “lost” to the West? Tough to say for sure, but it doesn’t look good.

One of these guys appears to stand out in, well, in just about every way:

n a true show of partnership, a U.S. Paratrooper along with Egyptian and Pakistani soldiers prepare to enter a room during Military Operations in Urban Terrain training at the Mubarak Military City, Egypt, during Operation Bright Star 2009/10. The training was part of the overall exercise designed to build partnerships and military cooperation between the 11 countries involved in the exercise. Photo by Sgt. Ty Stafford

Story: 82nd Airborne Division Helps Train Troops Coalition Forces in Egypt

Also see:
Bright Star Abrams
Bright Star Ospreys

Coalition forces conduct amphibious operations to move U.S. Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit on the USS Bataan, sailing in the Mediterranean Sea, to a staging area on Mubarak Military City near Alexandria, Egypt. Operation Bright Star 2009 is a multinational exercise is designed to improve readiness, interoperability, and strengthen military and professional relationships among U.S., Egyptian and several other participating forces. Photo by Spc. Lindsey Frazier

More info and photos at: Bright Star 2009 Participants Conduct Amphibious Operations Exercise

More Bright Star earlier today.

MV-22B Ospreys with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 (Reinforced), 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, fly over the Egyptian coastline during Exercise Bright Star 2009 in Egypt, Oct. 12. The multinational exercise is designed to improve readiness, interoperability, and strengthen the military and professional relationships among U.S., Egyptian and participating forces. Bright Star is conducted by U.S. Central Command and held every two years. Elements of the 22nd MEU are currently are participating in the multi-national exercise while serving as the theater reserve force for U.S. Central Command. Photo by Cpl. Justin Martinez

More photos here: 22nd MEU Conducts Urban Training During Bright Star 2009

U.S. Army Pfc. Kevin B. Mettler (front), 22, and Pvt. Jason R. Pompa (rear), 26, mortar gunners for Mortar Platoon, L Troop of the 4th Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment based in Vilseck, Germany, cover their ears as a long-range training round is fired out of a 120 mm mortar which has a maximum range of 6,800 meters. The training rounds have cartridges similar to 12-gauge shotgun shells at the top of each round that detonates a white flash upon impact instead of sending out shrapnel as a live mortar would. Photo by Sgt. Marla Keown

2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment Participates in Joint Task Force-East Training

Soldiers from the 2nd SCR have been rotating every three weeks to Romania and Bulgaria since the second week of August and will continue through the end of October. The combined training facilitated by exercise JTF-East is an integral part of the overall goal which is to increase regional security cooperation, build interoperability capabilities and develop personal and professional relationships.

You know you’re scraping bottom

Are you kidding?

Red and yellow lights shone from the top of the Empire State Building at dusk Wednesday, a tribute to communist China’s 60th anniversary that protesters labeled “blatant approval” of totalitarianism and criticized as inappropriate for an icon in the land of the free.

A Japanese soldier ground guides a Type 90 tank into place during a live-fire range at Yakima Training Center, Wash., Sept. 15. The Soldiers were conducting a number of training events at YTC throughout September during the annual Exercise Rising Thunder. Photo by Sgt. Stephen Proctor

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