“Walls work.” “100 percent.”  So says our president, whose grasp of history is apparently nonexistent.  One definition of stupid is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.  Or in other words, not learning from history.  So let’s examine the effectiveness of past national border fortifications.

The Great Wall of China failed to keep the Mongols and Manchus from invading China and ruling for 350 years.  The Maginot Line failed to keep Nazi Germany out of France in 1940.  The “Atlantic Wall” did not stop the allies at Normandy, nor did the “Westwall” stop them from entering Germany in 1944.  The Berlin Wall did not stop 5,000 East Germans from escaping to the west (it did cause the death of 138 people).

I remind you of a quote by General George S. Patton, a man who knew something about the effectiveness of walls: “Fixed fortifications are monuments to the stupidity of men.”

Our self-obsessed president is primarily interested, and always has been, with building long-lasting monuments to himself.  Don’t take my word for it; thousands of mental health professionals have signed a “Duty to Warn” petition to the effect that he “manifests a serious mental illness that renders him psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of President of the United States.”  His memorial wall to himself is only the most recent example of that condition.

He ignores the fact that the majority of American people do not want his wall, and the people along the border, knowing the failure of walls firsthand, don’t want them either.  The only group solidly behind the walls are the Mexican manufacturers of 35-foot ladders.

 

Paul W. Dutram

Waterville


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