The border is being knocked down piece by piece — whether by journalists and soldiers crossing back and forth or shells falling on Turkish towns.
In 1996, when the two sides were still reeling from war, NATO peacekeepers rimmed the border between them, which was a former frontline, and there was little civilian transportation crossing back and forth.
Until recently Mexicans crossed back and forth across the border as work and family demanded.
"They provide information to the Haqqanis, they let them cross back and forth across the border, they let this L.E.T. guy (the leader of the dangerous Lashkar-e-Taiba faction of Kashmiri terrorists) be in prison and not be in prison at the same time".
But as I cross back and forth at some of the border's most troubled points, I find that even a journalist faces scrutiny going both ways.
But Sandoval and Tambini also make it clear that Arizona itself is a victim of unintended consequences, federal immigration policies having encouraged workers who once would have crossed back and forth across a more open border to remain in the U.S., and, by fencing off the borders of neighboring Southwest states, to turn Arizona into a sort of funnel for immigrants and smugglers alike.
The border will also have to be demarcated, including the tinderbox Abyei area, where Arab nomads historically have crossed back and forth.
"Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters cross back and forth, and we cannot stop them," said Shah Wali, the commander of the Afghan border post here, which opened with American help four weeks ago.
