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from the if-you-build-it-they-will-come...and-cut-through-it dept.
Smugglers have found an easy way to get through the vertical steel tube Mexican border wall. From https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/smugglers-are-sawing-through-new-sections-of-trumps-border-wall/2019/11/01/25bf8ce0-fa72-11e9-ac8c-8eced29ca6ef_story.html
The breaches have been made using a popular cordless household tool known as a reciprocating saw that retails at hardware stores for as little as $100. When fitted with specialized blades, the saws can slice through one of the barrier's steel-and-concrete bollards in minutes, according to the agents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the barrier-defeating techniques.
After cutting through the base of a single bollard, smugglers can push the steel out of the way, creating an adult-size gap. Because the bollards are so tall — and are attached only to a panel at the top — their length makes them easier to push aside once they have been cut and are left dangling, according to engineers consulted by The Washington Post.
The taxpayer-funded barrier — so far coming with a $10 billion price tag — was a central theme of Trump's 2016 campaign, and he has made the project a physical symbol of his presidency, touting its construction progress in speeches, ads and tweets. Trump has increasingly boasted to crowds in recent weeks about the superlative properties of the barrier, calling it "virtually impenetrable" and likening the structure to a "Rolls-Royce" that border crossers cannot get over, under or through.
In other words, no one did any serious pen testing on the wall design, or it would have been obvious that with all that leverage, the top tie-in was easy to flex.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @12:29AM
Please investigate military and political history. Yes, there are castles which have not been breached, but that was due to political and military reasons rather than them being made out of indestructible unobtanium and being architecturally perfect. You can find numerous youtube videos, books, websites, and university courses on medieval architecture, but the short summary is as follows...
There are numerous ways to breach a castle, the simplest being an earthen ramp. You get your 5,000 strong army, tell them "each man go to the field over there, get a barrel of earth, bring it over here," and you pile it up to make a giant ramp which goes over the wall. There are other ways as well, such as ladders, siege towers, battering rams, undermining the walls, or other technologies.
The point of a castle is simply to delay attacks substantially (as well as a safe spot from which to launch skirmishing attacks, but that's beside the point here). A well-stocked castle could last months, maybe years. The idea is that you hole up for a few months while your nearby allies rally together, call in their forces, form an army, and drive off the attackers. You would stay in your castle for months-to-years, stalling until your allies bring you relief. However, if you had no possibility of relief, you would be bound to fall eventually.
Suffice it to say, the only reason a castle would have not fallen is that the local population was stable enough, and regional feudal alliances were strong enough, to prevent a wide-scale attack.