Guess what…short-handed American Border Patrol is now guarding our National Guard.

We agree: “In a word, this is crazy”.

Below from the Washington Times

Guarding the National Guard
TODAY’S EDITORIAL
August 19, 2006

When President Bush announced he would send 6,000 National Guard troops to the southern border, we applauded the move, but knew that it was more a symbolic gesture than an actual solution to the crisis. Our concerns deepened after it became known that the Guard troops wouldn’t actually be, well, guarding the border. Rather, they would placed in more administrative positions, presumably to free up Border Patrol agents to patrol the field. Now, it looks like even that benign gesture may be doing more harm than good.
As Jerry Seper reported Thursday, Border Patrol agents, instead of being free to guard the border, are having to guard the Guard. “Several veteran Border Patrol agents in Arizona told The Washington Times they were issued standing orders to be within five minutes of National Guard troops along the border and that Border Patrol units were pulled from other regions to protect Guard units — leaving their own areas short-handed,” Mr. Seper reported.
In a word, this is crazy. Border Patrol agents are referring to their new duties as “nanny patrol,” and that seems about right to us. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman tried to sugarcoat the comedy show that has become the southern border, saying “It makes sense that agents would be nearby the National Guard members who are there to be our eyes and ears.” Except, of course, when the federal government forbids Guardsmen from bearing arms, it becomes less a question of supporting each other than protecting each other.

Read the rest here.