Does any other country have a physical wall? n/t

[3c273a]

[secondwind]

1. Only wall that comes to mind is the Great Wall of China....13,000 miles...opened 220 BC

[nightwing1240]

2. The Great Wall of China

The Berlin Wall fell some time ago

[El Supremo]

3. Israel n/m

[demmiblue]

4. Yes.

The World Is Witnessing a Rapid Proliferation of Border Walls

In a matter of months in late 2021, Poland’s parliament approved the building of barbed-wire fencing along its border with Belarus, the governor of Texas inaugurated sections of 30-foot-tall steel-bollard barriers abutting Mexico financed by state and private funds, and Israel completed an underground “iron wall” equipped with sensors on the edge of its border with Gaza. Around the same time, Turkey reinforced its stone wall on the Iranian border, while Greece completed a 25-mile steel wall separating itself from Turkey and made plans to appeal to the European Union for support to add even more sections.

No continent has been spared from the reinforcement and fortification of borders, which has come to define the beginning of the 21st century. Seventy-four border walls exist across the globe, most erected over the last two decades; at least 15 others were in some stage of planning as of this writing. A large share of these walls, particularly the new ones, are designed to prevent illegal immigration, although they have not proven wholly effective in this regard. But walls can also mark the legacy of wartime defenses, aid the halting of smuggling, and seek to prevent terrorist attacks.

While the idea of barriers between countries is centuries old, the phenomenon has taken on a scale unprecedented in history. There were fewer than five border walls globally when World War II ended, and less than a dozen at the fall of the Berlin Wall and end of the Cold War, which seemed to mark the victory of democracy and foretell the obsolescence of borders in favor of an era of expanded capitalism and liberalism. Sometimes seen as mere lines between two sovereign states, sometimes not even clearly demarcated, borders were previously somewhat (albeit not always) more flexible and permeable than they are today. This was the case especially in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War.

Yet, the post-Cold War evolution towards a global village was a delusion that lasted only a decade. The reterritorialization of the world and its delineations made a comeback, and in the years since borders have become gradually more demarcated as well as harder, reinforced, more fortified, and better armored. They have morphed into symbols of states’ entrenchment behind ramparts designed to address asymmetric, unconventional, and global threats, including unwanted flows. Once supposedly antiquated, walls have become gradually normalized solutions to geopolitical tensions and remedies to the instability generated by an unbalanced international system. This article reviews the ancient and recent history of border walls to show the rapid increase in construction since the turn of the millennium.

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/rapid-proliferation-number-border-walls

[Magoo48]

5. Israel has walls.

Google: Israeli walls.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

6. Yes, lots of them esp. if you count fences as walls

And I think one should, as the distinction is mostly academic.

Scroll down, this shows dozens of them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_barrier

[48656c6c6f20]

7. Only the shithole ones.

[Celerity]

10. You didnt do much (if any) research before making your reply.

I can assure you that Austria, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, France, the UK, Spain, etc are not shitholes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_barrier

[48656c6c6f20]

12. Any country that needs a wall to enslave peoples movements

Is a abomination to freedoms.

[Celerity]

15. You did not read the circumstances for each nation.

[48656c6c6f20]

17. Why do I need to make an excuse for every country that

Decides to enslave or limit the travel of human beings? Make any excuse you want about the wonders of fences and walls, but the fact is its because someone us selfish and they don't want to give up their property, whether that be people, land, resources. I ain't natural to stifle migrations of humans or animals.

[Celerity]

25. Those nations I listed are not 'enslaving' populations, and your stance is apparently that there

there should be no such thing as national borders and no sovereign right for a nation state to determine their own border flows.

but the fact is its because someone us selfish and they don't want to give up their property, whether that be people, land, resources. I ain't natural to stifle migrations of humans or animals.

Of course it is natural for a nation state to control its own borders, it is madness to remove any and all barriers to inflows, be it for humans or animals.

You are literally calling for the end of modern nation states to have any say-so in what constitutes their population.

Do you think Russia has the right to just steamroller in and seize Ukrainian land and resources and property? THey would under your no border policy.

Try pushing your stance on a US political platform level. Good luck winning ANY federal government election.

[Ocelot II]

21. Historically, walls have been erected as defenses from invaders, like the Visby ring wall

which was erected in the 13th century and is especially interesting because it still stands. It wasn't built to restrict immigration, but like most medieval walls, to protect the inhabitants of a town or other area. In this case there was a civil war on the island of Gotland, and the Visby wall was erected to protect the town, which even then was an important commercial base. These sorts of walls have been common throughout history. The reasons for walls or fences have to be considered - TFG's proposed Mexico border wall is an act of performative spite, not a rational way to control immigration, but there have been fences along parts of that border for many years. Where there are natural borders like rivers, oceans or mountains, should those be demolished or bridged too so people can travel without restriction?

[48656c6c6f20]

23. Seriously comparing a mountain ocean river to a

Man made obstacle makes me stop taking you seriously.

[Ocelot II]

24. Whatever.

[Celerity]

30. +1

[Celerity]

26. +1

[Ocelot II]

22. It seems pretty reasonable to have one when your country borders Russia,

as Norway does; it's not a wall but a big, sturdy fence. Same for Estonia, which has constructed an 8' barbed-wire fence along most of its border with Russia. Many non-shithole countries have fences or walls on their borders, and for good reason.

[MenloParque]

11. Thank you for calling my mothers beautiful homeland of Zimbabwe

a shithole. We have a wall on the border of Botswana.

[maxsolomon]

16. Why is there a wall on the Botswana border?

To stop rebels? Migration? Wildlife?

Pretty sure the "Shithole" comment was sarcasm.

[Celerity]

29. it wasn't sarcasm from that poster, read their replies

for example:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217502349#post17

and then mine to that

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217502349#post25

[maxsolomon]

31. Nope, that post was sarcasm

then they got irritated with your response.

And the poster I was replying to hasn't told me why Zimbabwe needs a wall to separate them from Botswana. I can't believe I'm going to have to figure it out myself.

What I learned: it's Botswana that's built a 300 mile long electric fence, to "keep hoof-and-mouth diseased cattle out", but it's really to keep Zimbabwean refugees out (this was in the early Aughts when Mugabe seized land from White farmers and plunged the country into a food crisis). The post seems quite odd in retrospect.

[Celerity]

32. this is not sarcasm, sorry:

[maxsolomon]

33. Post #7 is. In my opinion. It was also flippant. In my opinion.

I don't know why it's so important to you to refute my opinion.

I only wanted to know why Zimbabwe and Botswana had a border wall.

[Celerity]

34. I simply disagree with the positing that it was sarcasm, as they fully fleshed out their thoughts

on it during our colloquy

It was linear, and IMHO, shows that Post 7, the initial one, was not sarcasm

[Ocelot II]

8. There's Hadrian's Wall in England, built by the Romans in the 2nd century.

Some of it is still standing but I don't think it would keep anyone in or out.

[ProfessorGAC]

20. It Can't Keep Anyone Out

There are areas of it, still standing, that anyone over the age of 3 can just step over!
When working near Manchester, I took a day to drive up to see that & the nearly complete Roman fort.
Glad I went to see that history for myself.
It was actually built more as trade regulation, tariffs, and taxes then protection from barbarians. But it did both functions for some time.

[multigraincracker]

9. The Vatican has a wall built in the

mid-800s.

[tinrobot]

13. The Maginot line was a thing for a while

Of course, Belgium was a giant hole in that wall.

[cbabe]

14. India/Bangladesh wall

https://www.minnpost.com › global-post › 2012 › 01 › bangladesh-india-border-wall-death

Bangladesh-India border: "Wall of Death" | MinnPost

Dubbed the "wall of death" by locals, the 4,000 km barrier spans the length of the fifth-longest border in the world, and is manned by India's Border Security Force (BSF), whose guards kill ...

[LeftInTX]

18. Turkey has border walls, guards fences. Closed borders

India and Pakistan has a closed border with gates and fences. One crossing between the two countries. Border opens in the morning and closes before sunset. There is a show every night when the border is closed.

[Stinky The Clown]

19. Berlin did until 1989. It was VERY effective to its purpose.

[Hekate]

28. Yes it was-- it imprisoned East Berliners

[treestar]

27. To work at all, the country

must be very small.

Our southern border just isn't a candidate for it.

Medieval towns had them all around. Castles did. But it is no longer medieval times. Only Republicans want to return to those times.