Watch the inspiring, kick-ass infantry graduation speech from LTC Randolph White to see that esprit de corps is alive and well in the US Army. It is stirring, to say the least, and a reminder that America can still generate the right stuff. And how!

Now try to imagine a similarly uplifting celebration at a Border Patrol graduation. Such confidence would be unlikely at the dispirited agency.

That’s because America’s border defenders are currently under attack from their own government. At least that is how it looks, due to the disturbing criminal prosecution of two Border Patrol agents for doing their job regarding an illegal alien drug smuggler.

The case concerns two agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, who have been convicted in criminal court and face 20 years of hard time in prison. The worst thing the officers appear to have done was skip filing some administrative steps about shooting an escaping drug criminal (who was believed to have drawn a gun by the agents). Handslap stuff.

Recent media coverage has attracted Congressional attention and a possible investigation into the matter. Oversight is needed, since the whole thing stinks all over and even brings questions about whether Mexican corruption is reaching into the Bush Justice Department.

Or perhaps the local federal prosecutor merely thought she would get rewarded for promoting more open borders (and better relations with narcostate Mexico), even though increased drug crime would certainly result. Particularly shocking was the immunity given to the Mexican drug trafficker, who is now suing the United States for $5 million for violating his civil rights!

The cartel bosses must be high-fiving over this latest Bush appeasement.

On the bright side, the case has brought the Border Patrol’s curious rules of engagement into the public eye [Convicted border agent tells his story, Daily Bulletin, 8/6/06].

Even more broadly, Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof said, Ramos and Compean had no business chasing someone in the first place.

“It is a violation of Border Patrol regulations to go after someone who is fleeing,” she said. “The Border Patrol pursuit policy prohibits the pursuit of someone.”

In what other line of law enforcement is the normal pursuit of criminals disallowed? (Even San Francisco allows cops to chase down bad guys.) It’s one of many reasons why being a Border Patrol agent is way tougher than it needs to be.

The thin line of border enforcement is arguably more important than our military in protecting the nation at this odd time in history. Yet the Border Patrol is treated in the most abysmal fashion. They deserve a whole lot better.

Muslims desperately need “insensitivity training” says this item by Kathy Shaidle, who points to this Beliefnet item by Rod Dreher, who is talking about a Roger Scruton piece in the WSJ.['Islamofascism', By ROGER SCRUTON,August 17, 2006(Subscriber link, but may work)]

Insensitivity training sounds like a good idea, I’d be willing to pay for it. (For those who need it, that is. I’m already insensitive, and I can prove it.) Here’s what Scruton had to say:

The Koran must never be questioned; Islam must be described as a religion of peace — isn’t that the meaning of the word? — and jokes about the prophet are an absolute no-no. If religion comes up in conversation, best to slip quietly away, accompanying your departure with abject apologies for the Crusades. And in Europe this pussyfooting is now being transcribed into law, with “Islamophobia” already a crime in Belgium and movements across the continent to censor everything at which a Muslim might take offence, including articles like this one.
* * *

The majority of European Muslims do not approve of terrorism. But there are majorities and majorities. According to a recent poll, a full quarter of British Muslims believe that the bombs of last summer in London were a legitimate response to the “war on terror.” Public pronouncements from Muslim leaders treat Islamist terrorism as a lamentable but understandable response to the West’s misguided policies. And the blood-curdling utterances of the Wahhabite clergy, when occasionally reported in the press, sit uneasily with the idea of a “religion of peace.” All this leads to a certain skepticism among ordinary people, whose “racist” or “xenophobic” prejudices are denounced by the media as the real cause of Muslim disaffection.

Now of course it is wrong to give gratuitous offence to people of other faiths; it is right to respect people’s beliefs, when these beliefs pose no threat to civil order; and we should extend toward resident Muslims all the toleration and neighborly goodwill that we hope to receive from them. But recent events have caused people to wonder exactly where Muslims stand in such matters. Although “islam” is derived from the same root as “salaam,” it does not mean peace but submission. And although the Koran tells us that there shall be no compulsion in matters of religion, it does not overflow with kindness toward those who refuse to submit to God’s will. The best they can hope for is to be protected by a treaty (dhimmah), and the privileges of the dhimmi are purchased by onerous taxation and humiliating rites of subservience. As for apostates, it remains as dangerous today as it was in the time of the prophet publicly to renounce the Muslim faith. Even if you cannot be compelled to adopt the faith, you can certainly be compelled to retain it. And the anger with which public Muslims greet any attempt to challenge, to ridicule or to marginalize their faith is every bit as ferocious as that which animated the murderer of Theo Van Gogh. Ordinary Christians, who suffer a daily diet of ridicule and skepticism, cannot help feeling that Muslims protest too much, and that the wounds, which they ostentatiously display to the world, are largely self-inflicted.

We’ll be running Pat Buchanan’s syndicated columns, when they’re about immigration, which Pat has just written a book about.

Did I mention the book? [State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, available from Amazon.com, at popular prices.]It looks like this:

Yes, that book. And as for the columns, any piece we run on Vdare.com will be full of links to any news story quoted, any study referred to, or any Presidential speech which is being made fun of. All part of the Vdare.com service.