On June 22, 2011 President Obama made one of the most profound statements since taking office. While making a speech in the White House telling the American people about his commitment to protect the Homeland against what he called “the cancer of violent extremism” he said, and I quote, “for let there be no doubt that so long as I am President, the United States will never tolerate a safe haven for those who aim to kill us; they cannot elude us nor escape the justice they deserve.” Bravo – that’s the kind of tough talk I like coming out of the man whom I am suppose to look up to and revere as my leader. Too bad it’s not the truth!

In southeastern Arizona, since February of 2011, there have been no less than 10 fires that local residents say were started by illegal aliens coming out of Mexico. All these fires have been started in remote areas on trails that are used solely by Mexican drug smugglers. Although the media has not reported it several illegal aliens have been apprehended who have admitted they started fires. This has been deliberately played down by authorites. The Horseshoe II Fire burned down the entire Chiracahua Mountain range, burning a total of 350 square miles of forest and grassland, costing the American taxpayer 50 million dollars to fight.

The Monument Fire started on the Mexican border south of Sierra Vista. The area where this fire started is on the southern edge of the Huachuca Mountains on a major smuggler’s trail that became famous when filmed and put on YouTube with the title “Hidden Cameras on the Border.” This fire is significant because it is the first to do major damage to a large metropolitan area. Due to heavy winds and extremely dry weather the fire spread at an alarming rate, burning across mountain and plain and eventually destroying 60 or so homes and several businesses. Journalist Leo Banks wrote an excellent article in the Tucson Citizen on June 30, 2011 concerning this and the other fires mentioned. He quotes many local residents, some of whom are leaders in the community, and reports their views on whom and what caused these fires. Until the Monument Fire the reports that these fires were started by Mexican outlaws were by and large debunked by the media. High ranking federal employees such as U.S. Forest Service fire managers and district rangers along with upper echelon Border Patrol agents all have had the same pat answer when questioned about the origin of the fires, “They are human caused and under investigation.” Because of the huge property loss resulting from the Monument Fire in the form of expensive homes and businesses, more people are demanding some realistic answers.

All of the other fires burned nothing more valuable than a few million dollars in natural resources. A great many ranchers have been burned out of forage for their livestock but that’s of no great concern to anyone, after all ranchers are only in business to produce food for a hungry nation. This true story is a good example of the general public’s indifference to the ranching community. A friend of mine asked his young niece, “Where does the food you eat come from?” Her reply was, “Safeway.” He went on, “Yes, but where does Safeway get it?” She replied, “From the back room!” There is now less than 2% of the American population involved in agriculture and therefore a growing disconnect between the eater and the producer. The average American doesn’t know and isn’t concerned about the struggles the agriculture community faces. Two percent is a very small voting block and therefore there isn’t much concern about a few hundred miles of burned up grassland.

The American rancher and farmer who lives on or near the Mexican border has taken almost all of the pain and destruction delivered by this invasion from the south. Because of the drug smuggler’s need to keep their smuggling routes in remote and hard to get to places they have stayed away from populated areas, and the people who live in cities have not witnessed first hand what is happening on large expanses of ranch land.

We send American men and women to fight and die in places like Iraq and Afghanistan all in the name of the war on terror. When our generals say the job is ¾ complete we announce, months in advance, the date of our retreat; we do this to show how noble we are, and so the enemy will know he can regroup and come at us again.

Mr. Obama has now engaged our overburdened wallets in a conflict in Libya because he (Obama) says Libya’s dictator Muammer Qadafi is a man guilty of committing heinous crimes against his own people. While we bankrupt ourselves doing this our neighbor Mexico is in the process of butchering its own people at a rate and style of which even Attila or Hitler would be jealous. The crimes against humanity that occur 25 miles south of my house on a daily basis are so violent and disgusting they are hard to describe. The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers put together what they call the M3 report which is posted on the internet every few days. In this M3 report are detailed reports of the carnage that is taking place in Mexico on a daily basis. More people have been murdered (30,000 plus) in northern Mexico in the last 4 years by the Mexican drug cartels than have been killed in all the wars in the Middle East. This includes all violent acts committed by Muammer Qadafi. These are turf wars that rival cartels wage against one another to see who gets the best routes to export the violence north.

While all this goes on Obama is silent, except for the occasion he took time out of his busy schedule of golf and campaigning to visit El Paso. As he stood a mere rifle shot away for Ciudad,Juarez arguably the most violent city on the planet, he made shallow remarks about a mote filled with alligators (no pun intended). Qadafi gets bombed, but Calderon, who is nothing more than a gangster himself, receives a standing ovation in front of a joint session of Congress.
Politicians from both sides of the aisle court the so-called Hispanic vote and seem to think that all Mexican-Americans are open border advocates, but it is generally agreed that the Democrats have the upper hand. It is my belief that there is a great miscalculation concerning this, I know a great many American patriots with Hispanic surnames who are tired of being stereotyped as being pro amnesty and open border. These people are no more Mexican than I am English.
Many local people in this area are disgusted with the automatic denial from federal officials about illegal aliens being responsible for starting the fires.

Across the board high ranking Forest Service and Dept. of Homeland Security officials refuse to blame the illegals. If you consider what has happened to other government officials, especially anyone in law enforcement, who has spoken his mind and in doing so challenged the Obama agenda you begin to understand the pat answer, “They are human caused and under investigation.” Recently, Vince Cefalu, a highly decorated and experienced ATF agent with many years of service and nothing negative on his record was fired by Obama after he (Cefalu) spilled the beans and went public with details about Obama’s ill fated project “Gunrunner” which is turning into the most embarrassing scandal of Obama’s Presidency. Little wonder that someone like Coronado National Forest District Ranger Bill Edwards deliberately steers away from the illegal alien issue.

As time goes on an ever increasing load of evidence shedding light on the violence coming north out of Mexico is straining the back of the federal government. An increasing number of people are realizing that we don’t just have some workers slipping across the line. What is happening on our southern border is terrorism just as sure as the events that took place on 911. Anyone who has done a little research knows that the Mexican drug cartels have connections and are doing business with Hamas, Hezbollah and other Islamic extremists, vast areas of what is supposed to be a sovereign United States are now being controlled by Mexican drug cartels.

Our turbulent problems on the Mexican border and our President’s refusal to deal with them are only one example among many of what seems to be a deliberate disconnect with reality. With his comments on June 22nd, bragging how he will not tolerate anyone who tries to kill us, Obama has painted himself into a box. Now he cannot admit that a Mexican drug smuggler could have started the numerous fires that have burned down 535 square miles in southern Arizona. That’s why he has been eerily silent about a tsunami of other violent and explosive events that have been connected to outlaws who cross our southern border every day. Though the Mexican drug cartels didn’t plan it, deserve it, or even see it coming they are the recipients of an immeasurable inheritance. They have become in effect one of the most powerful and effective political lobbies in American history.

Yesterday we had a murder, today a fire, and tomorrow a suitcase nuke, or perhaps something more mundane like a few dismembered bodies who were first skinned alive, for this is the cartel’s torture of choice.

One thing is for certain, Barack Obama, the supreme iconoclast, goes unchallenged by an indifferent Congress and therefore nothing is likely to change.

Ed Ashurst
Apache, Arizona

Submitted to the Federal Observer for publication, by the author, an Arizona Border Rancher.

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