Agencies Clash on Military's Border Role

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/27/AR2009062700956.html?hpid=topnews


At Issue: Which One Directs Troops in Anti-Drug Mission


A proposal to send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to counter drug trafficking has triggered a bureaucratic standoff between the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security over the military's role in domestic affairs, according to officials in both departments.

The debate has engaged a pair of powerful personalities, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, in what their subordinates describe as a turf fight over which agency should direct the use of troops to assist in the fight against Mexican cartels and which one should pay for them.

-long snip-

The fight is largely over money. For two years, Pentagon budget officials have tried to slash funding for state drug-fighting operations, citing the financial strain of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And military officials say governors could pay for their own Guard units.

But governors contend that securing the border is a federal responsibility.
-snip-
---------------------------


who will prevail, we wonder.

go away... The drug war does not work. Its a waste of money.