Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican, who recently wrapped up a failed presidential bid based on a platform of fighting illegal immigration, just asked Gen. David Petraeus about whether members of the U.S. military in Iraq are participating in the violent gang MS-13.
Tancredo has blamed the spread of MS-13 domestically on what he sees as the United States' failure to secure its southern border. Tancredo asked whether members of MS-13 were gaining recruits within the ranks of the U.S. military, receiving weapons training and returning to the United States to commit acts of violence.
"I'm not aware of a problem with gangs," Petraeus replied. "That's one that I'll have to check on."
— Carrie Sheffield, Web editor, The Washington Times
Comments (3)
Assuming (as I don't really, but let's pretend) that this post was made in good faith:
1. There's information on this issue here:
cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/28/eveningnews/main3107316.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_3107316
radaronline.com/from-the-magazine/2007/05/gangs_of_iraq_1.php
2. The video above it to Tanc's older Consequences ad; thanks for making me sign in before I could find out what it is.
3. There's another version of the ad that wasn't flagged by helpful "liberals", and this site might want to link to that instead.
Posted by TLB | April 9, 2008 6:00 PM
It is true that gangs are in our military. A decade ago their were all kinds of stories of white supremesits in the military and the gov't quickly ban them. Now their are mexican gangs and we won't do anything because its racist.
Posted by pete | April 10, 2008 12:45 PM
i know this might sound a bit extreme but why are we even allowing gang members to join the US military? Also exactly how is it racist doing something against gang members? last time i checked Gangs are a social construct, a mere urban group and therefore not to be considered a race. i say that we should make a small militia of vigilantes to fight off gangs.
Posted by UrbanWarrior | April 17, 2008 11:50 PM