re: US Southern Command Chief: Crime/Terror Convergence on Boarder is Huge Threat

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Personally I don't have a problem with using available programs to help staunch the problem at its root.

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Quite frankly, that is wrongheaded thinking. As my children were growing up they were disciplined (when necessary) in order to punish poor behavior. We are rewarding it. Building schools, medical clinics and police stations in Central America is the same as building them in Afghanistan. If you do not have teachers, medical providers and policemen to man them then they are worthless. This is an issue that the Central American countries need to address. Send them back to point of origin and stop the (well intentioned but wrongheaded) behavior patterns.

Seriously, I can tell you personal stories that make me sick to my stomach where our best intentions have turned out horribly wrong.

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Well sure it would if that is what actually happens. They won't be just flown back though. They'll arrive to new facilities to live in in those countries paid for with US $. Anyway you go at it it will cost money. One way is just more apparent than the other.

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Even if we paid for the facilities for 10 or 15 years you're still talking about an exponentially smaller investment.

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It is time to de-militarize our foreign policy, period. If we think these things are so important then they should be under the direction of the Department of State. We are too impatient and it is just too easy (regardless as to political party) to turn to the Department of Defense to fix them

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I don't argue with de-militarize foreign policy, but I do know the military fights just as hard to keep it rather than lose it. They don't want to wait on USAID or big State to do the job, they want the money to do it quickly (well that's a relative term).