Fences Don't Make Good Neighbors
I suppose we should blame the Chinese for starting it all. The Great Wall of China is considered one of the most amazing engineering feats of all time and one of the great wonders of the world. What government wouldn't want to emulate it, in fact, create their own wall, bigger and better?
But the world has changed and as the Berlin Wall showed us, in today's international community fences don't make good neighbors, they just make trouble. Humans, though, seem particularly resistant to the lessons of history. Building walls appears to be the big new government tool, a useless physical symbol of failed diplomacy. Israel has its Gaza and West Bank walls. Bush wants to build a 700-mile wall separating America from Mexico. Saudi Arabia is planning to build a fence along its 560-mile border with Iraq. What's the point? Did we learn nothing from the Berlin Wall? A wall won't keep Mexicans from getting into the United States and a fence won't keep terrorists from moving between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Israel's walls have become flashpoints for Arab fury. Walls and fences between nations simply serve as focal points for political rage.
Part of a $12 billion dollar security package that includes electronic sensors, security bases and other barriers, the Saudi-Iraq fence is estimated to cost $500 million and take 5 to 6 years to build. At least the Saudi government will be providing jobs to hundreds of its citizens, pointless though they may be. Still in the planning stages, the Saudis haven't decided whether to fence the entire length of their border with Iraq -- 560 miles of brutal, barren desert -- or just key crossing points. If they wall off the entire border, of course they'll have to man it with regular patrols or the terrorists will simply find a way to scale it or tunnel under it. On the other hand, if they only wall off key crossing points, the terrorists will simply cross somewhere else. Sounds like a lot of brouhaha for nothing.
Of course, I guess the oil-rich Saudi Princes have the money to burn, but it makes you wonder what the outcome would be if they put that money into foreign policy or aiding peace initiatives in Iraq or even social services in their own country? I'll bet with the money, planning, manpower and resources the Saudis are putting into their fence, they could become the leaders and saviors of the Middle East. Of course, that would take forward thinking, entail a bit of political risk, demand some political courage, and force the Saudi Princes to rattle their comfortable status quo. So much easier to build a fence to nowhere.
But the world has changed and as the Berlin Wall showed us, in today's international community fences don't make good neighbors, they just make trouble. Humans, though, seem particularly resistant to the lessons of history. Building walls appears to be the big new government tool, a useless physical symbol of failed diplomacy. Israel has its Gaza and West Bank walls. Bush wants to build a 700-mile wall separating America from Mexico. Saudi Arabia is planning to build a fence along its 560-mile border with Iraq. What's the point? Did we learn nothing from the Berlin Wall? A wall won't keep Mexicans from getting into the United States and a fence won't keep terrorists from moving between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Israel's walls have become flashpoints for Arab fury. Walls and fences between nations simply serve as focal points for political rage.
Part of a $12 billion dollar security package that includes electronic sensors, security bases and other barriers, the Saudi-Iraq fence is estimated to cost $500 million and take 5 to 6 years to build. At least the Saudi government will be providing jobs to hundreds of its citizens, pointless though they may be. Still in the planning stages, the Saudis haven't decided whether to fence the entire length of their border with Iraq -- 560 miles of brutal, barren desert -- or just key crossing points. If they wall off the entire border, of course they'll have to man it with regular patrols or the terrorists will simply find a way to scale it or tunnel under it. On the other hand, if they only wall off key crossing points, the terrorists will simply cross somewhere else. Sounds like a lot of brouhaha for nothing.
Of course, I guess the oil-rich Saudi Princes have the money to burn, but it makes you wonder what the outcome would be if they put that money into foreign policy or aiding peace initiatives in Iraq or even social services in their own country? I'll bet with the money, planning, manpower and resources the Saudis are putting into their fence, they could become the leaders and saviors of the Middle East. Of course, that would take forward thinking, entail a bit of political risk, demand some political courage, and force the Saudi Princes to rattle their comfortable status quo. So much easier to build a fence to nowhere.
