Bush's border plan: technology-focused

As the outlines of President Bush's border-security plan become clearer, a familiar working principle emerges: that a relatively small number of troops, equipped with the most advanced technologies of the day, can do the work of a larger force.

More than three years ago, the Bush administration used a similar principle as it went to war in Iraq with a somewhat small but technologically advanced force.

Now, the centerpiece of the administration's border-control efforts is not only the temporary National Guard mission, but also a Department of Homeland Security plan for an integrated network of sensors, fences, and surveillance technology.

Yet as was the case before the Iraq war, critics contend that the plan lacks the necessary manpower. As a result, the US-Mexico border is becoming the latest venue for a debate that has in some ways defined this administration's security policy: Can technology offset the need for more "boots on the ground" in operations such as border patrol or fighting insurgencies?

To be sure, border-patrol agents "could use all the help they can get," says Noah Shachtman of DefenseTech.org. "The question is whether help is more agents or more technology. It seems to me that the administration is leaning toward the 'more technology' approach."

Strictly speaking, it is doing both. By sending 6,000 National Guard troops to the border, the president is buying time. His plan is to increase the size of the border patrol from 12,000 to 18,000. The National Guard is simply a placeholder until the border patrol meets that goal.

Some critics, however, suggest that even 18,000 border-patrol agents aren't enough. "We need 25,000 to 30,000 agents," says TJ Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents agents.

The Bush administration has promoted the idea that technology can help make up the difference. "Boots on the ground is not really enough," said Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff in a briefing last week. "You've got to leverage those boots. You've got to make them as effective as possible, and the way to do that is more tactical infrastructure - things like fences, vehicle barriers, and roads - and as important, next-generation technology."

For the time being, National Guard troops will take up those support tasks, building new fences and conducting aerial surveillance, for example. Chief of Border Patrol David Aguilar has called the Guard troops a "force multiplier," meaning that they can help the border patrol do more than their numbers suggest. After the Guard leaves, however, the "force multiplier" will be new technology.

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