A couple of days ago the Old Gringo decided to review a couple of "Minutemen" sites. These are the fellows who come down to the border to "protect America" from Mexican military incursions and illegal aliens. Several of their "documentary films" of encounters with the Mexican military brought me back to where I am. In every case, the dumbo doing the filming and narrating is either stupid or ignorant or lying through his teeth about the nature of the conversation between the valiant defenders of America and the vile and sneaky Mexican soldier. In the case cited here, there was a light infantry platoon, perhaps 30 soldiers, and a group of 6 or 7 ''minutemen''.
In a couple of cases, one of the Minutemen who could speak Spanish fairly well would correct the filmer/narrator, resulting in an exchange like..."No, that's not what the lieutenant said. He just wanted to know if we had permission from someone to be here.".....To which the filmer responds..."I don't care what he said, I only care about what I heard".
Lamentably, because it might be the case that the Old Gringo can speak a bit of Spanish, it was very, very apparent that the fellow saying, ".... that was not what the Lieutenant said".... was telling the truth. The officer's manner was not even nuanced in any negative or menacing way. The other soldiers' weapons all around were pointed down and all military protocols were being followed. The area where the filming was taking place in this instance was one where the soldiers had been in a heavy firefight a couple of weeks earlier....around an old, abandoned home within sight of the United States/Mexico border. The Army had taken casualties and rendered many more at that point on the map.
It could be pointed out that the armaments being carried by the soldiers could have destroyed the vehicle of the Minutemen with two clips and three seconds. They could have killed all six or seven of the Minutemen there in less than five seconds, driven their bodies to a cavern two or three miles away, burned their cameras and tape recorders, and gone home.
In the background, un-manned and not at-the-ready was a mobile mounted 50 cal. belt-fed machine gun, not covering the encounter between two Mexican soldiers and six or seven white-trash thugs who were armed, somewhat heavily. The Old Gringo was amazed....genuinely did not know ..... that such a presence and such mendacity could be practiced by American people. And they are so stupid that they think that there are not several hundred thousand old Confederates out here who can readily interpret what the exchange of a conversation is when conducted in Spanish. How could anyone be so stupid?
Inbreeding?
The Old Gringo laments that he must confide in the OROG community that he reviewed about 30 of these "trophy films" and encounters, finding each and every one to be flawed in terms of honest presentation of the facts. It seemed to be almost like an attempt to cause some incident that would give cause for the American government to step in with righteous indignation and disarm the American public...."for its own good".
As you all know, the Old Gringo is absolutely convinced that the ATF "fast and furious and stupid" program of delivering weapons that could be readily transformed to automatic-fire to Cartel members was most certainly a straw-dog designed to shut down legitimate trade and ownership of firearms among private individuals in the United States.
It was all very depressing. Very disturbing.
With some considerable lamentation, we render our gratitude for your continued indulgence.
El Gringo Viejo
