Having laid down my fair share of razor wire, I could appreciate this question.
“Sir, I have a question. The wire obstacles that we've implanted along the border... Are we going to be taking those out when we leave?" one of them asked, drawing a few smirks from those around him. The most visible role US troops have served since they began arriving on Oct. 29 has been stringing up concertina wire, a razor wire that is notoriously hard to remove.And yeah, this is a fair question.
"We'll see what the secretary says, okay?" he answered, pointing to Nielsen standing next to him. “Right now, the mission is put them in. ... We’ll let you know.”
US Northern Command says that troops have deployed with 22 miles of the wire so far, with 150 more available. The US–Mexico border is 1,950 miles long. Most members of the migrant caravan are heading toward Tijuana, which lies some 1,300 northwest of the border camp in Texas.
“What are the short and the long-term plans of this operation, sir?” asked another young soldier.
"Short term right now, you get the obstacles in so the border patrolmen can do what they gotta do,” Mattis responded.
“Longer term, it's somewhat to be determined,” he said, adding that “if we were in war right now, you'd be asking the same question” and that the mission was a “dynamic, unpredictable kind of thing.”
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