National Guardsmen shoot up a carne asada on Texas border

But what about guns and boredom?

That latter question takes on real gravitas when you throw it into the mix of an increasingly militarized border.

After all, it is boredom, supposedly, that recently led three National Guardsmen to shoot up a family barbeque while on a beer-fueled joy ride near Eagle Pass.

But before we address the "boredom" firefight, it makes sense to revisit another firefight involving soldiers that occurred along the Texas border nearly 10 years ago.

In July, Narco News reported a story about the 1997 shooting of Esequiel Hernandez Jr. by a U.S. military unit called Joint Task Force Six, or JTF 6 -- now known as JTF North.

The four heavily camouflaged Marines who tracked and shot Hernandez were participating in a JTF 6 mission to assist the U.S. Border Patrol in capturing drug traffickers. The JTF 6 mission was all about fighting the so-called drug war, but that mission didn’t matter in Hernandez’ case. He was a goat herder, not a drug smuggler, who likely thought he was firing at a wild animal threatening his goats.

Hernandez was killed because that is what soldiers are trained to do in a war. They hunt down the enemy and destroy them. And in this case, because Hernandez had allegedly fired the first shot, even though he could have had no clue it was Marines he was shooting at, he triggered one of the primary rules of engagement for soldiers deployed in any mission.

The Narco News story made the following observation about the incident:

Marines are taught to hunt down the enemy and eliminate him. That’s what you get when you put soldiers on the border. They are trained to kill.

That fact is something to keep in mind as President Bush’s directive of dispatching [some 6,000] National Guard troops to the border is carried out over the next several months.

… If you want to destroy the border, then send in the Marines.

Tedium

What wasn’t foreseen in the story about Hernandez is the danger that might plague border communities due to the off-duty antics of a some "bored" military personnel.

For those not accustom to life on the border and its bilingual, bi-cultural heartbeat, life there can be an isolating experience. That is particularly true if you are an outsider inserted into a border community on a short-term basis (like the National Guard troops now stationed there under President Bush’s “Operation Jump Start”) and you find yourself cooped up in a hotel room for long stretches of time.

So, who can blame the soldiers for breaking the boredom by blowing off some steam from time to time?

And without doubt, most National Guardsmen are mature enough to respect the rights of their neighbors in these border communities, even while they are charged with helping to hunt down any Mexican-born friends and relatives of these neighbors.

The gun, thing, though, that is a problem, as this recent story in the Houston Chronicle points out all to well:

EAGLE PASS - Nobody said it would be a thrill for National Guard troops to help the U.S. Border Patrol with administrative and other tasks, allowing scores of patrol agents to resume law enforcement duties.

But the two-year military mission known as "Operation Jump Start" wasn't supposed to be such a tedious assignment that highly trained troops would bide their off-duty time with beer-fueled joyriding and reckless gunfire.

That's what may have happened here earlier this month in an incident that has disappointed Texas National Guard officials during an otherwise successful deployment.

Three soldiers from North Texas, at least one of whom had served in Iraq, were arrested the evening of Sept. 6 on felony deadly-conduct charges after several shots were fired from their private vehicle as it passed a family cookout in a modest Maverick County subdivision, officials said.

Several adults and children "hit the dirt" fearing a drive-by attack, Sheriff Tomas S. Herrera said, but no one was targeted or injured by the gunshots and no property damage was reported.

"Apparently the family was having a carne asada outside and they saw this vehicle drive by, stop in front of the residence and shoot several times. Then they took off and made a U-turn and came back [emphasis added] and did the same thing," Herrera said.

The story goes on to say “two cases of beer – minus three brews – were found in the car when the suspects were located at a convenience store.” Amazingly, according to Sheriff Herrera, “none of the soldiers appeared intoxicated upon arrest,” the Chronicle reports.

But apparently they were bored.

More from the story:

… "They were not on duty at the time. They were not in uniform. The weapon they used was not a field weapon that belonged to the federal government. They were just bored from not doing anything and decided to go out on a joyride," Herrera said.

Lodged in motels, the troops were among 1,500 soldiers stationed along the Texas border since June to bolster the Border Patrol while it trains new agents. Barred from enforcing immigration laws, the troops handle jobs from surveillance to truck repair, serving tours of duty usually spanning several months.

… County Judge Jose A. Aranda Jr. agreed the arrests were "isolated," but he said they were puzzling because the community has welcomed the troops, even though some residents disapproved of their presence.

Aranda, who opposes the deployment, sympathizes with soldiers assigned here because entertainment options are limited to restaurants, bars, the Kickapoo casino and the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras, he said.

"You send in a group of people who are actually trained to do something else, you put them behind a desk, you've got them stashed away in a hotel. They're bored and they were out having fun," Aranda said.

One former supervisor with the Department of Homeland Security is not impressed with Aranda’s analysis.

He asks the following questions:

Why shoot up a Latino community and why did they go back to the same house?

If they were not on duty, under what authority did they have a firearm?

The government immediately states that it was an isolated incident. If not by the grace of God, they may have killed innocent people and children. One incident is too much.

Well, I guess we have to be content with the fact that despite the soldier’s tedium and cultural insensitivity (is racism too strong a word?) no one was killed — this time.

But you have to ask yourself, if the soldiers are that bored, with that much time on their hands to “shoot” off steam, what are they doing on the border in the first place?