The Slide and the Wall

I’m attempting to get a little more frequent with the blog posts.  This hasn’t been helped by the weather as the long hot days mean I’m usually only able willing to spend an hour in the morning and late afternoon outside.

The drawer slide is almost completed.  A piece of carpet has been glued over the plywood at the front where the fridge will sit.  The back half will remain bare as it will form the base of a locker I’ve built.

As you can see in the above photo the drawer doesn’t fully extend out of the trailer.   Access to the planned rear locker obviously won’t be available from the front of the drawer because the fridge will obstruct it.  Neither is there access from the top as there will be a plywood ‘floor’ between the upper and lower half of the existing compartment.  I’ve therefore made the locker with side access.

This next photo shows the side of the locker which will face towards the inside of the compartment. 

And this is what it looks like in the open position.  No floor as it will be glued and screwed to the plywood drawer slide.  I think it probably needs an upper drawer.

Now about the wall.  Jan noticed this next photo on Farcebook. 

Many years ago I was single and living in barracks.  One of my room mates was missing his right foot which had been blown off by an anti-personnel mine whilst in Vietnam.  The irony was the mine had been made in the USA. 

One Australian Army Commander decided to deny the enemy freedom of movement by laying a large and long minefield.  In doing so he breached one of the key principles of constructing an obstacle.  Any obstacle must be under continuously observation!  This minefield was so big and long there were insufficient troops to watch it.  Consequentially the obstacle just became a large warehouse for the enemy to collect mines.  Which they then used to kill and maim Australian and New Zealand soldiers.

The Israelis have also constructed a barrier between the Egyptian Sinai and the Gaza Strip.  Despite continually watching it they haven’t been able to prevent the Palestinians from constructing multiple tunnels under the obstacle.

I repeat.   A barrier has to be continually observed.   The USA-Mexico border is 3145km.  Assuming you need on average a watch tower every 500m which means it would take approximately 75,000 people to watch the wall 24/7.  That’s just the number of static observers; additional mobile patrols would be required.

I don’t doubt this has been explained to President Trump.  However he continues to persist; despite the fact the wall would be hugely expensive and not very effective.  But then this isn’t about a wall.  It’s about keeping a campaign promise…..