DEPLOY ARMED FORCES WISELY.

Chicago Tribune columnist Rex Huppke does not approve of deploying troops to the southern border.  It's not because there's a lot of pitching talent going to waste among those refugees.

No, the greatest risk for our soldiers are the accidents that can happen anytime troops are deployed. Vehicles crash. Soldiers get injured operating heavy machinery. There’s psychological distress, illness and heat exhaustion.

A Congressional Research Service report released in June found that from 2006 to 2018, nearly 4,600 active-duty military personnel were killed in accidents during noncombat operations, referred to in the report as “circumstances unrelated to war.”

A 2014 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found: “Accidents are a leading cause of active duty deaths in the U.S. Military, exceeding suicides and, in most years, combat fatalities.”

Accidents happen. Lives get lost.

That's a reason to be careful about sending troops into action under any circumstances other than achieving a clear military objective with well-defined criteria for victory.  Limited wars or nation building wars or feel-good humanitarian missions do not qualify.

That is all.