By Ted Galen Carpenter, Special to CNN
Ted Galen Carpenter, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, is the author of nine books on international affairs, including the just released The Fire Next Door: Mexico’s Drug Violence and the Danger to America. The views expressed are his own.
A striking feature of the presidential debate on foreign policy was the total lack of attention given to Latin America –notably the drug violence wracking our next door neighbor, Mexico. Nearly 60,000 people have perished since 2006 in the Mexican government’s military-led offensive against the country’s powerful, ruthless drug cartels. But while President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney both obsessed about the Middle East, they virtually ignored Washington’s relations with our southern neighbors. After a brief observation from Romney near the start of the debate that the region offered important – and neglected – economic opportunities for the United States, both candidates quickly abandoned the Western Hemisphere.
That was extraordinarily myopic. Given its geographic proximity, historical ties, and mounting importance as an arena for trade and investment, Latin America should be high on Washington’s diplomatic and economic agenda. And near the top of the national security agenda should be the alarming developments involving the drug violence in Mexico.
Killings continue to rise, and hardly a week passes without a new report of grisly acts south of the border. Portions of several key cities, especially Ciudad Juarez and Monterrey, are now virtual war zones. The Mexican government’s control is becoming precarious in major swaths of territory, including the crucial northern states of Nuevo Leon, Chihuahua, and Tamaulipas. Several of the cartels, especially the Sinaloa cartel and the ultra-violent Zetas, pose a threat to the integrity of the Mexican state.
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Equally troubling, the turmoil in Mexico is spreading to Central America and beginning to seep over the border into the United States. One would think that such a national security problem would merit some attention from the incumbent president and the man who aims to replace him.
Indeed, Mexican opinion leaders were justifiably miffed at the failure to address the drug war. Prominent journalist Leon Krauss’s widely circulated tweet summarized the frustration. “Mexico, facing 100,000 deaths, neighbor to the United States, didn’t deserve a single mention tonight. A disgrace.”
Mexico’s problems with the Sinaloa cartel and the Zetas are now plaguing the countries of Central America. According to Leonel Ruíz, Guatemala’s federal prosecutor for narcotics offenses, the Zetas had gained control of nearly half of Guatemala’s territory. Kevin Casas-Zamora, a former vice president of Costa Rica, suggest the figure is about 40 percent.
The cartels’ penetration of Honduras and El Salvador has also reached the point that in significant portions of those countries governmental control is eroding or already nonexistent. El Salvador’s president, Mauricio Funes, admits that the Zetas successfully bribe elite police units with $5,000 monthly payments to cooperate with the cartel and to steal high-powered weapons and grenades from the military. Honduran President Porfirio Lobo argues that in his country, drug gang members now outnumber police officers and soldiers.
Even Costa Rica, long an enclave of democracy and stability in the region, has come under growing pressure. The drug trade there is more prominent than ever before, and the Obama administration for the first time put that country on the official list of “major drug transit or major drug-producing countries.”
Most importantly, Mexico’s troubles are also beginning to afflict the United States. According to law enforcement authorities, Mexican drug organizations now have ties to criminal gangs in at least 230 American cities, including all of the 50 largest cities. The cartels’ presence now even extends to relatively small cities and, in some cases, to rural counties – and not just in the southwestern states, but portions of the South, the Midwest, and other regions.
People in impoverished Mexican-American communities along the border are feeling the menace of drug cartel enforcers. As Associated Press correspondent Paul Weber reported from Fort Hancock, Texas: “When black SUVs trail school buses around here, no one dismisses it as routine traffic. And, as I've noted before, when three tough-looking Mexican men pace around the high school gym during a basketball game, no one assumes they’re just fans…Mexican families fleeing the violence have moved here or just sent their children, and authorities and residents says gangsters have followed them across the Rio Grande” in a campaign of intimidation.
Even Anglo populations along the border are becoming nervous. Complaints are surging from ranchers in the borderlands of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas that intruders use their properties with impunity as routes to enter the United States. And the level of fear is rising as more and more of the uninvited seem to be involved in drug smuggling rather than being ordinary people looking for work and better lives in the United States.
While Romney and Obama obsess about Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, and virtually every development in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, we have a significant security problem brewing much closer to home. Yet that issue did not merit even a single sentence in a presidential debate supposedly devoted to foreign policy. That is a classic case of blind spots and misplaced priorities. But the candidate elected president on November 6 will not have the luxury of ignoring the drug violence on our southern border.
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Grass roots stress management failure creating demand. I ride my bike on a sunny day and I get a better dopamine response than any illegal drug.
Yes, if we all simply move to California, buy bicycles, and spend another 3 trillion dollars — with the exception of alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs, and all that other stuff you'll still be able to buy on street corners, in schoolyards, and even prisons — we'lll have a completely drug-free country.
Drug crimes are social problems. Drug gangs aren't trying to destabilise a country's political system or to impose an ideology. These villains just wanto to do their dirty business. As long as the government leaves them in peace, they don't cause much problems. Of course the government has to tackle the malaise together with the society.
I combine the two....long bike rides after consuming
winner!
i skydive and do ultramarathons....both after consuming
kinda hard to go ride singletrack when i get home after its dark, raining, snowing.... a joint doesnt care what the conditions are like outside.
smart
aw whatchu go and spoil a good high like that man?
aw well, I'll just light up another joint...Not only do I get high enough to enjoy the day sometimes I get to see God..
happened one time in 75, saw his face after smoking some Columbia in a tobacco pipe.. Too heavy man ..I could see him with my eyes opened or closed... scared me beyond words...I was full of fear! I swore to myself I would never touch that stuff again all the while, while saying , "THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOR MY SALVATION" repeatedly with all the energy in my body..I was completely drained of energy.... but that did not stop me from trying again in 76-77... anyway in 78 I got what was the real and wonderful thing , the only thing to compare with that Colombian high..in experience and that was the baptism in the Holy Spirit..
So your belief in an imaginary, supernatural being stopped you from using drugs? Talk about scary. Thinking their is an all knowing, invisible being just waiting for you in the clouds is delusional. You NEED drugs to help correct your confused mind.
How can this still be happening to our Seniors.
This activity should be stopped right away.
http://www.youtube DOT com/watch?v=3eQZoXAU7X0&feature=related
My answer fot this is The Fire Next Door: United States’s guns Violence and the Danger to Mexico.
If we're going to talk about Mexico, we shouldn't neglect to mention the Fast and Furious program in which US is arming the Drug cartels. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/atf-fast-furious-sg,0,3828090.storygallery
jo
because they armed less than 1% of the assault weapons the cartels have in their possession. You must be Mexican and wanting to blame the USA instead of Mexicans….you know..the ones pulling the triggers.
usa is the #1 consumer of drugs drug war will never end as long as their consumers is called supply and demand
correcto Frank
"usa is the #1 consumer of drugs drug war will never end as long as their consumers is called supply and demand"
LOL first, please get an education and learn how to construct proper sentences.
Second, if there was no black market for drugs, there would be no profit for cartels. Simple economics.
It's being ignored because both obama and romney need the drug war to generate revenue, propel the prison industrial complex and to protect special interest groups like Big Pharm, the Plastics and Cotton industries.
Try to be a little realistic, Pal. The USA are the customer of the drugs, the cartels are the store.You seriously want to blame the store?
Let's try another scenario:
You have been buying cancer-causing, government approved cigarettes from Walmart years and now you have developed cancer. Are you going to blame Walmart for your stupid choices of putting smoke in your lungs for years?
F & F began in 2006 which would place it in the Bush regime
Dumb liberal. F&F was an Obama admin program. Bush's was called Wide Receiver, which also had gps tracking chips in the guns, worked with mexican authorities, and captured guns as soon as they crossed the border, all of which were not a part of Obama's program. If nothing bad happened then why did Obama use executive privileged? Probably the same reason why he told everyone the terrorist attack on sept 11, 2012 was because of your freedom of speech.
You can get over that lame argument right now kook.
America has a long history of arming both sides of a conflict.
Blind spots? Yeah sure.
Incredible stupidity? Don't think so. Even when they look like, they are not that stupid considering they spend our tax money.
Complicity?
Someone should start a rumor that Mexico is next door to Israel and then the world would care.
No – only the US.
No Missouri
because people here in the u.s. are making alot of money.
Where would the rich republicans get their drugs from then? Hahahahahahahahahha
The broke dem drugdealer!
im just saying!
Drug dealers aren't broke, schmo. They've got plenty of money.
War on Drugs == FAIL
Rush Limbaugh goes to the Dominican Republic for his drugs. Strange dude.
that's his racist leaning kharacter at work
Legalize and Tax already. And if your answer to that is 'NO', then please state exactly how many lives, how many Trillions of dollars and how many careers need to be lost before you change your mind. Current totals are 60k lives lost in Mexico alone, 1 Trillion dollars wasted on the failed 'War on Drugs', and untold numbers of Americans incarcerated and profitable working lives ruined by our draconian drug laws.
Yes but just think of all the income lost to the prison industrial complex if they legalize drugs. They'd never be able to to get enough prisoners to cover their expenses and the ones they got may be dangerous.
Yeah great idea then let's watch as our medical insurance sky rockets from all the health problems. You think cigarrettes cause problems for our health insurance watch what happens when you legalize drugs
legalization and taxation are NOT the answer. That process requires government oversight, IRS, and sets artificial prices that will not deter the average joe from growing it in his back yard, which would still be illegal, or stop smugglers from bringing it into the country and selling at prices lower than the government's price. The answer is decriminalization, whereby any person can at any time from any source possess, consume, barter, trade, or sell. The savings of law enforcement would be enormous. The other side is that people would need to accept personal responsibility for crimes committed while under the influence of said product. People need their freedoms, but also need to accept responsibility for the consequences of their actions.
You mean like how any joe bloe farmer can grow tobacco and any joe shmoe with a little money and a space to do it can buy a kit and brew their own beer?
I've been smoking since I first tried it in Viet Nam in 1970. Never been in trouble in my live. Hope to see it legal to smoke
for fun before I die.
Re-legalize drugs and watch the cartels income stream vanish like a fart in the wind.
Legalize marijuana brownies and have them taxed. On the other hand, those involved with meth labs should be treated as environmental terrorists/enemy combatants.
The Mexico War On Drugs is phoney and should be ignored-NAFTA put millions of Mexican farmers out of business with subsidized American corn.Monopolists are responsible for the drug wars.Marijuana plant is a miracle plant with many industrial uses.It can be used instead of cotton,has high protein seeds for better quality foods,has medical uses which AMA Mafia does not want-it actually helps people in an inexpensive way, recreational use which the 1% wants to make big money on.Calderon needs to legalize the growing of the marijuana plant to give his people better opportunities in life so they do not fight and run for our border.Unfortunately , the monopolist oligarchs will not let him do it.
Calderon will be out of office in a month. He didn't manage to do great things in the 6 years he was in office... just saying.
Illegal drugs are a trillion dollar industry rivalled only by oil companies.Think about it-if we legalized drugs and taxed them what it would mean.It would mean less money for prisons,narcs,the DEA,cops,lawyers(both criminal and civil, etc .The benfits would be more money for treatment,less violence over drug turf,drug king pins would be reduced to nothings,more money could be freed up for schools,infrastructure,less people robbing for drug money,etc.
Nice fiftyfive55! I thought the world has become devoid of intelligence but you have raised my hopes. The questions to ask: who benefits from the current policy? The United States has many resources to mitigate the problem but its government CHOOSES not to use them. Follow the money and one understands.
Nip the problem in the butt. Go after the cartels with full multinational force. Nothing good will ever come out of them. Do not wait for the killings to start in the states to erradicate these cancers from the face of the earth...
Just like were doing now with Lebanon-hashish,Pakistan-opium,Afghanistan-heroin.Yup, I can see your idea totally working (sarcasm)
Right, except all those you mentioned don't live in our back yard.
We should leave Lebanon alone – hash is hard to come by in my neck of the woods (no shortage of 'Mare-can' made meth, though). Opium/heroin can be cultivated quite easily in our climate, plus you don't run the risk of blowing up your trailer.
Right but guess what country many of those drugs are smuggled through, you got it Mexico
Go back to the couch Cheeseburger man, you wouldn't do any of it.
lol @comeon, just had a cheesburguer for lunch. At least Ihave an opinion, all you have is your daddy's d1ck still shoved deep up your @ss
So you send in drones and blow up cartel headquarters and then the survivors relocate and mix in with the civilians? What then? Are you advocating invading Mexico?
I am advocating an erradication of the cartels. Not the country (although half of it is run by the cartels). How that would happen, I leave that to the people that have the means to do it. If we dont get involved soon, good luck. God bless ammendment 2.
Having lived in the South Texas McAllen Reynosa border for many years...it seems that your idea would be best total and complete annihilation of the murderers of young children, babies and their mothers. They are killing for killing sake and drugs are no longer the issue.....many government figures have also been executed/murdered for no reason...and please, if you don't live in the area...don't guess as to their reasons...reporters are scared for their lives ...no one wants to face this demon...but we have to.....and the violence trickled into the U.S. a long time ago....but everyone is looking the other way.....now I will be on their hit list? For speaking...??? For commenting???? God help us all and forgive us for looking the other way. Thanks Hit Em Hard......
why are whites the worlds number one consumer of drugs and why do that fund drug gangs?
the hispanics in the poor part of our town is a drug haven of sellers and users.
Don't worry David. Latinos have bred themselves out of minority status, so they will catch up soon.
Well,why are minorities the world's number one illegal drug traffikers ?
because it is great money?
because the drug of choice in what folks countries (mostly in europe) is alcohol, which is legal here?
because much of what is illegal is grown in countries made up primarily of brown people?
Ask your mom!
sorry, but my weed money doesn't fund drug cartels...i dont buy crap brick weed.
mine is from a suburb about 15 miles away
David, that argument is stupid. I dont care what the demand is and who uses it, the animals that kill for their greed are still animals. I dont care what the demand is, if you kill to take advantage of the demand to get rich, you dont deserve to live, you greedy animalistic f**ck. Scratch that,. animals kill to eat, so that's an insult to them..
If you think that white collar corporations and governments don't kill for greed, think again.
unfortunately, demand is the issue. That doesn't make these criminals any less culpable or sub-human but we could do a lot to reduce their power and control by taking a sane look at our drug laws. the war on drugs has failed, and escalating that war/failure might be the definition of crazy.
Imagine if illegal drugs become cheaper, more accessible, industrialized, commercialized, subsidized, then more kids at an early stage in life will be more vulnerable, more susceptible, more conducive, more likely to engage in drugs because of the above availability. Now, ignorant people may think that taxing it may generate billions in tax revenue, and save billions in border security, but do not take into account that these citizens/drug dealers will not file a 1099, report all their earnings, pay taxes and not try to defraud the US of any tax dollars. Tax evasion will forever exist, and decriminalizing the "DRUG issue" will only escalate- increase the problem and make us more import dependent with unforeseeable consequences.
You are completely wrong. It's harder for kids to get alcohol than it is for them to get weed. To get alcohol, a kid needs to find an adult willing to buy it for them. To get pot, all a kid has to do is call up the local dealer and it's at his door in 20 minutes. No ID checks, no taxes. So, why would drugs be any different?
So you want to deny the wants of all adults whether they have children or not to protect your brats you can't teach you narrow view of the world to. Stop depending on the nanny state to raise your kids for you and do a little parenting you lazy irresponsible twit
Young people see the hypocrisy in our drug laws. The vast majority disagree with the drinking age of 21. Most begin drinking at a much younger age. The vast majority of young people also believe that pot is less harmful than booze and should be legalize. Most begin smoking pot in their teens. A sizable portion of our teen population regularly drink and smoke pot as well as cigarettes. Meanwhile, very little revenue goes towards prevention, education and treatment of our teen population. But, the cops sure love chasing them around to arrest them drinking and smoking.
The reason drugs aren't in the discussion is because the _only_ useful response is legalization. If you base any of your political ideas on freedom, then legalization of drugs is what you must do. if instead like most, you alter your 'principle' and wish for drugs to remain illegal, there is nothing to be done.
Drugs have always been illegal and drug use has not gone down. Melville in Moby Dick in the 1880s wrote about the endless war in Afghanistan. Currently, 68% of Americans drink regularly. The local hospital treats 10 alcohol overdoses a week. Our society can handle legalization a lot better than the old-style of Prohibition.
For the folks who comment, "You wouldn't say that if your daughter was addicted to meth," I agree I probably wouldn't feel that way although I should. If the daughter is addicted and the drug is already illegal, then you've got two choices: make it more illegal (and probably more dangerous to all of the users) or make it legal and then folks don't have to consort with lowlifes to get their high.
I love cocaine. Thank you, CIA.
So if someone loves little boys and had a provider, you would still blame only the pedo? Users and suppliers are both at fault. Dont just blame one.
Its simple economics people - cut off the supply of income by decriminalizing/legalizing/tolerating drugs, and the cartels no longer have a lucrative business to profit from. They commit extreme acts of violence to combat the police force/naysayers of their business because there is so much to gain/lose. Its just like how our private prison industry lobbies for harsher sentences, younger arrest ages, less oversight, ect. to keep more money in their pockets. The American prison industrial complex is just as bad if not worse than the Mexican Drug War.
Semantics are for morons.
A human trafficker is still exploiting a child...
Of course they'd be guilty too. Inanimate drugs can't be exploited in that sense.
Plus nobody is saying the laws against victimizing children are unjust.
ok, now I think you must be out for fun because no one is this moronic.
Actually, it's the governments that are at fault. There's nothing wrong with drug use unless it's taken too far into addiction. Most drug users are not addicts. People have been using drugs since the beginning of time and will continue to do so. If the governments would simply legalize drugs and bring the markets into the open where they can be regulated, this problem would vanish overnight.
One dealer is giving away a free illegal alien with every bag purchased
Two issues here, US immigration policy is broken as more semi-literate latinos come the US the problem will spread to the US. Second problem, poverty in mexico and C.A. It exists largely because the elite their have not opened up their economies and provided adequate opportunities. That is on them.
Can you handle the truth?
No one cares about Mexico because it's brown people dying and suffering. Not saying it's right. Just saying that's the plain and simple reason Mexico doesn't get any attention.
Got to agree with Mike M. We have made millionaires of the drug dealers and Billionaires out of the producers. We jail out inner city youth for selling to those with $money. We should at least Legalize weed. Everyone can grow their own or Not. Maybe just maybe it would provide the experimental outlet for youth to leave the other nastier things alone. In any case it was a war lost in the 1970's and has cost too many lives. The money spent on foreign governments could go to the therapy outlets that are needed.
I agree, Mexico should have been discussed in any of the three debates. Just one thing, Mexico is considered a domestic matter, therefore it should have been in any of the two first debates.
I don't know anyone who considers Mexico a 'domestic' matter. "Domestic" refers to homeland/national topics, NOT issues with other sovereign nations. Had Mexico been brought up in any of the debates, the only one appropriate to such a topic would have been the last, the one on foreign policy.
Legalize and tax marijuana.
Bring home the military, and deploy some of the troops and equipment against the cartels!! The cartels are criminals, and terrorists. Use drones, troops, etc. to drop the hammer on them!
adding to that although you get high from smoking marijuana at least your not smoking jet fuel, rat poison and 50 other things that can kill you at once when you smoke tobacco
This comment is a fact. Yes, bring all troops back and use against cartels. Our own people getting killed to help others when the U.S. needs help too. Save our future!
Biggest drug-dealers of the world?
Why us, of course. Thanks to our glorious and ever valiant CIA.
Because it helps keep the illegals out.
This is the future. Have a government too small to take on any problems or multinationals legal or illegal. Just stave the beast until it is a little poodle.
What would you have the candidates do ? Send in drones –that question did not come up in the debate –do you want to do what we did in Iraq–it seems that the auhtor has an axe to grind. We cannot internally do our thing there -we need to do to legalize the stuff and do away with the war on drugs. How did they solve prohibiiton. Why dont you suggest another debate and have the moderator just talk about the drug war.i
It's not just Mexico's war it's America's war too. There are millions of drug addicts who are causing pain, suffering, insecurity, violence, poverty and billions to taxpayers. And the reason they are ignoring it is because they are helpless
they can't do anything about it.
Why talk about an issue you have no control over. The war on drugs has falled and as long as we demand drugs, people will still supply them. If Mexicans are killing each other over drug supply route, that's bad but so what are we going to do...nothing, that's a Mex issue/prob. There is no real solution, so that's why they don't talk about it. Altough, I guess there's no real solution to the middle east either, Ha!
Chicago murders are somewhere north of 400 deaths so far this year. Why expect the candidates to care about Mexico? Murdering US citizens in Bengazi doesn't even phase the president. They seem to treasure votes more than lives.....maybe thats why they want us to vote early....just in case something happens.
Four dead Americans in Benghazi = murder.
Dozens of dead civilians in a drone strike on a wedding party = "collateral damage."
So what? They are also ignoring the tsunami of job outsourcing which is the #1 issue in the world today.
It's simple, neither candidate wants to address the general failure of the war on drugs, so neither candidate wants to address its effects.
i still love the fact that in mexico the cops are the ones that wear masks.
While it seems logical to legalize drugs, politically I don't see that happening. I am adamantly for the legalization of ALL drugs, but if I live another 60 yrs, I know that this will not happen. It is highly hipocritical to allow unlimited acccess to alcohol, which is so much more potently dangerous than herbs such as marijuana (which by the way, no one has ever died from smoking weed). But let's get real here..we have American sheriffs, cops, troopers, lawyers, judges, ICE agents, prison guards, CIA, DEA, etc who actually work for the cartels here in the USA. It ought to be a crime to lock people up for smoking weed, or even growing it. The violence will get much worse here and I am so disgusted and aghast that these issues were not even brought up in the debates. Our leaders are a joke, and the people need to rise up and demand that they talk about issues so close to home. America is a country chock full of drug addicts. Central America is experiencing a bloodbath. We are so culpable and responsible, and continue to blame Mexico.
Good posting trina, except that I'm not for legalizing hard drugs like heroin, cocaine or LSD. These drugs are very harmful and have ended many young lives. We have but ourselves to blame for this drug problem that we now have. Like you said, our current leaders are a joke and I will vote for neither Mitt Romney nor Barack Obama who has been slaughtering people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen with those ungodly drones over the last four years!
The main reason this drug war is largely being ignored is simply the fact that there's little to be made off this war by Washington bureaucrats and the Pentagon. The M.I.C. is to busy making money off the Middle East and Central Asia to care much about Mexico.
the war on drugs funds law enforcement the court systems and prisons .stop the war and that industry loses their justification to exist
Oh there is a lot of money in Drug Wars. Believe it. Underground untraceable money. Banks love it.
How dare Mexican drug suppliers meet the demand of American drug users.
You mean, how dare the Mexican drug dealers take the lazy approach and blame drug users for their greed. People who want drugs can certainly obtain them without Mexico's "help".
the rich Republicans would then buy their drugs from the Socialist Democrats
Media ignoring Benghazi bombing?
What?
Well, there you go then. Viscous desperation and name calling and I'm supposed to be the moron? Aren't you transparent?
FYI – 'viscous' doesn't mean what you think it means....
We talk about the illegal immigration issue, but we fall far short on both sides of the argument. We vilify and lament the immigrants, but we remain completely ambivalent to a war that affects 100 times more people, and is the cause of all the immigration to begin with.
What backroom theorists in the republican party thought it would be a good idea to invade Iraq and ignore a ground war going on every day on our southern border should be fired. And what democrats, who shaking down americans for votes, obsess around a million immigrants from Mexico while completely ignoring the humanitarian causes and the mexican people who have to deal with a life besieged don't deserve their party cards.
We spend trillions on these wars...and the world decays around us for simple lack of attention. Not even money, not manpower or toil...just attention and care. We can argue all day about the existential necessity of preventing terrorist attacks, but the reality is that when it becomes so all-consuming as to cripple our economy and it keeps us from attending to the greater list of problems in the world, it's an unacceptable liability – and it needs to be reworked.
If Mexico wants to be free of drug cartels, all it takes if for her citizens to band together and decide that they won't accept it anymore. They won't though. Seems to me that the average Mexican doesn't find criminality as unacceptable as most do here. Whether its graft, illegal migration, fraud, descrimination, or whatever...they just seem to tolerate it. They, as a society, just don't have the stomach to stand up and call to account those amongst them who participate in the crime. They're waiting for someone else – (probably the US since we clean up all their other messes) – to do something about it.
That's nice rhetoric, but what are chances you would do that? If the drug cartels where in your city and destroyed your police force, fought the army to a standstill, and indiscriminately executed people in the street would you band together and fight them? No, I doubt any of us in this thread would we would run or cower just like they are.
And what about the American Drug War????????????? End all Drug Wars!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's because the only solution to the problem is unmentionable by anyone seeking to have a political career: legalization.
It looks to me that more and more politicians have actually sprouted a pair and are doing exactly that.. calling for legalization. Look at Colorado, Washington State, and Oregon for a glimpse at our future.... 6 decades too late, but still.
Those states are only considering legalization because of THE PEOPLE, not the politicians.
I particularly enjoyed how the author tried to present certain topics as new, such as Mexican gangs with ties in the US, or AZ and NM farmers concerned about drug runners using their lands as travel routes. None of this is new. Secondly, and I'm surprised or disappointed the author isn't talking about this, the reason the Zetas are moving into countries south of Mexico isn't because they're growing more powerful, it's becasue they're being squeezed by the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels. Have no doubt, with the PRI back in power all the "old" rules go back in place as well. The Zetas don't play by the rules and so they will be targeted by the federal police in Mexico and killings of Zetas will not be investigated by police, hence empowering the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels to "clean up." But, even more to the point of the article, why would either Obama or Romney talk about the drug war in/with Mexico and Latin America? From a political perspective, if they bring it up then it will either get spun into how they blaming Mexican and Latin Americans for everything, or not blaming them enough. Neither wants to lose votes so neither bring it up. Most of us understand that is politics 101, so to the author and his fellow "opinion leaders" in Mexico, please step up your rhetoric.
This is funny to me.
This is funny considering we have american troops guarding Poppy fields in Afganistan. A place where 70% of all the heroin on the planet comes from. USA gov. is silly.
What war on drugs ???
We can get all the illegal drugs we want,we can even get illegal aliens if we want.
yes the mexican drug war is being ignored because the most sensible option to help fight the cartels, which is pot legalization, is off the table also. You can't talk about one without mentioning the other
legalize it all.. register people as users, provide them with cheap what ever it is they like....
pull the rug out from under gangs and cartels.. reduce street violence, end gangs/cartels
how dare you be logical ! lol
correcto Frank
I applaud you for your faith – if what you were saying is true, your faith in God. People should learn not to judge what they do not understand. Rock on, bro!
Mexico's drug war hasn't been ignored at all by the U.S. government. The ATF and justice department have actively taken the side of the drug cartels by arming them during the "too fast, too furious" operation.
Just unforgivable. The level of corruption involved id proven by the fact that nobody has been arrested for it. Mr. Holder? Mr. President? Time to do your jobs! End the useless "war on drugs" for the good of the country... OUR country!
Its called supply and demand...as long as there is a demand for illegal drugs, there will be a supply. Legalize it! Tax it, make money out of it. Pot heads, will be pot heads, they will get it either legal or illegal.
They do not talk about it because neither has any adornments to display.
It is true that the Mexican government by itself has done a terrific effort at containing the gross growth of organized crime and the national narco-deities that were on route to become the number-one power in the country. Crime families were not going to take it in the chin and they responded with vicious violence, no collateral damage was avoided and thousands of civilians died. Even during the world's worst economic crisis, the Mexican government continued to fight drug bosses who appeared to have been supplied with high caliber weapons from USA sellers. The fight raged on for years, whole towns lost any economic edge they had gained and many businesses folded, but it looks that the worst part is over and the country is starting to move forward and to gain its peace back.
And none of that would be convenient for any of the condidates to mention, so why mentioning it...
Now, it will be incoming president Pena Nieto's job to continue the hard stance that Calderon took on the bunch of crooks. It will be very obvious to see that the PRI pick is selling out as an easy form to regain apparent control while just being an organized-crime puppet.
I really hope he follows through and totally rids the country of those horrible leeches capable of bleeding the country to its bare bones...
I'm sick and tired of American politicians worrying more about the neighbors well-being than they do those who elected them. Frankly. I think it's Mexico's obligation to police themselves instead of always counting on the US to do it for them. Whether it's illegal drugs or illegal labor, it seems that everything that comes out of Mexico is tainted by criminality. That's just the way their society is. No sense in sinking anymore taxpayer money into trying to change them. And far past time for those elected to serve the AMERICAN citizen to actually start doing so. They could start by returning all the criminals Mexico's sent us over the years instead of bestowing legitimacy on them for being so very successful in their illegal enterprises.
repost: (sorry didn't mean to include this in a response)
It's being ignored because both obama and romney need the drug war to generate revenue, propel the prison industrial complex and to protect special interest groups like Big Pharm, the Plastics and Cotton industries. man.
reclassify! decriminalize!
I can attest to the issues with drug violence along borders as I live in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. The drug culture has a stranglehold on local law enforcement and politicians. We might as well be living in Mexico, as the local government is just as corrupt as the drug lords. I say build the damn border wall and staff snipers 24-7.
You say that the Mexican drug trade has a stranglehold on local law enforcement and politicians in your town? How well do you think that keeping a hog away from the mud is going to do any good in turning the hog into a silk luggage set? So your saying that if someone's daughter is a s-l-u-t, the way for him to deal with it is to kill all her lovers????
No, Zakaria, you two-bit plagiarizer, that's Libya that's being ignored, along with the murders that could've been stopped by a president who chose not to do so.
Well, obviously too much money is being made off of it.. prisons need product, private prisons have lobbyists.. the dea can get more funding for it's bureaucracy, the banks can get more untraceable cash to launder and balance their books.. it's like politics, it's all about the money.. legalization is the only way, only lots of powerful interests don't want that to happen on both sides of the border.. not like w/ half a day's work you can buy any illegal drug you want.. just ask a teenager how hard it is..
Talking about the war on drugs without including the leading force for it is nonsense. Fingerpointing Mexico is the easy way out for the blame game players. Let's not forget the US's responsibility for initiating and sponsoring this war (among others).
It looks like your knowledge about what is happening in Mexico can only be from security consulting companies and from newswires. I suggest journalists like you to get your feet dirty and visit the places you talk about. You will probably find a large group of people that transcends the niche war you, politicians, and fear mongering individuals keep on talking about. These majority of Mexican people are being punished not only by the bad guys paid by drug money (mostly from US citizens) and their prosecutors paid by the war on drugs money (mostly by US citizens), but to an equivalent degree by the sensationalist-rates driven media like you.
I suggest you go back and read about the ethics of your profession and get serious about reporting like a professional. There are consequences to real people when you put the whole Mexico and Mexican people into a box and reinforce a steriotype just to sell news. In my view, your opinion is like crying fire in a movie theater.It is shameful to make this issue a political issue.
I got it, it is the beggining of the high tourism season in Mexico... you have to make sure it will be another weak one. Is that your way of making a difference?
Thank you for listening.
"Shameful to make this a political issue"? Well, how else can we get our government to pull it's head out of it's rear end regarding the abysmal failure of the so-called wr on drugs? End it, and gangs and cartels disappear, police corruption ends, huge numbers of prisons go out of business, we save billions of dollars a year, and otherwise law abiding Americans avoid jail and a criminal record. Not to mention the fact that marijuana is America's largest cash crop, and we could make hundreds of billions more by simply legalizing and taxing it. Time to pull those heads out!
Could Mexico do without the money that the cartels put in the economy?No.Could the US go into Mexico and take down the cartels quicker?Yes.Stopping the cartels will take less time than it will take for drug treatment here in the states.
Mexico was actually coming up pretty nicely BEFORE the big rush in demand for pot and cocaine created by all the U.S. stoners, hippies and snorters during the 70s, 80s and 90s gave birth to the cartels. That's why Colombia has had to dedicate most of it's military efforts to drive U.S.-fueled drug empires OUT, it's last mission is to drive out the FARC thugs completely, but it will take years, Mexico will have to do the same, with the added problem that it is much closer to the source of demand and silent-partner finance of the drug trade, the UNITED STATES.
Mexico = failed state
So is the USA.
I don't think either of them cares about Hispanic issues. All they want is their vote.
It's León Krauze not Leon Krauss
How much more free stuff are we going to give those people.
Free School-Good Jobs, let them figure it out for them selves for once.
I am a US citizen and now living in GDL, Mexico. I now see the truth. This narco-drug-corruption mess is a partnership between USA and Mexico officials. Mexico supplies the biggest drug market in th world with a product. Explain to me how drugs get into the USA with the best technology in the world "protecting" it's borders. BS!!!! More than 90% of the weapons used by the cartels are USA MADE. C'mon America stop believing all the crap. WAKE UP.
I wouldn't argue with you on any particulars there excepth the part about the worlds best technology protecting our borders, that stuff only gets used in the middleeast they don't care to protect our borders, oh and most weed smoked in the US is grown in the US, as a long time user I can vouch for that, I know the growers
Needless to say all of you jokers who proudly confess to partaking in drug use are part of the core to the problems people face at the hands of the drug enterprises in South America, Mexico and the U.S. I can't believe you are so self-centered and stupid as to puff up and beam that you buyillegal drugs out of one corner of your mouth, and trash-talk Hispanics and immigrants who are trying to get away from the hunger, crime and corruption in their countries, out of the other. I hope you buy a bag out of a bad batch and end up sick as a dog in an IC unit, then maybe you'll have time to meditate on the internationally expansive implications of your actions.
Well said.
Only Mexicans buy Mexican weed.
1. Legalize drugs. 2. Make all the second-class, druggie citizen losers, I mean users, an enslaved-by-choice workforce. 3. Use the free workers to improve our declining infrastructure. All our problems solved.
yeah lets have drugged citizens build our bridges that sounds safe
Do you have any idea how many "drugged" citizens have already built your bridges? Not to mention, your roads, your houses, your schools, your computer, your car, etc. Having drugs illegal prevents no one from using them. You can't even tell most drug users are drug users. That is the reality.
It's so simple. Legalize drugs, end the drug war.
Great idea, nothing like a bunch of Meth heads running around a neighborhood making you feel safe. Obviously, you smoke pot and don't realize there are drugs that make people violent and resistant to pain. Ever try to wrestle a knife away from someone that doesn't realize you broke their arm? (And no I'm not a cop I just used to live in a bad area).
Same thing happened to 3rd RGR Batt in Somalia, the Somalis were doped up on cot and you could shoot them 3-4 times and if it wasn't in the head they would just get up and keep firing. Flat out legalization won't help matters, for things like pot, it might be the answer but many drugs...not the answer. Good try though, C- for effort.
a cheap app to use as a surveillance or anti surveillance app is the RaDar Bluetooth WIFI Detector as it scans when started for all bluetooth or WIFI within your device range plus other users device range, map the device and store it and the map then you know later if the same device appears in another location that something is up, this also helps stop those creeps with the facebook searching apps so they can view your picture and profile, cheap and easy on google playstore
Turn them in. Always.
Turn them in and they will lose.
Simple because NO ONE CARES what happens to mexico!
Drug Cartels Invading Our Cities and Threatening to turn Mexico into a Failed State on our southern Border is the Second Biggest national Security Threat for the USA Today. The solution of course would be to STOP the 'War on drugs' and let people grow Pot in their Back Yards rather than Fund Criminals. The BIGGEST Threat to National Security is Headquartered on Wall Street – They STOLE our Homes – Crashed Our Economy and with the help of Coal Barons and Oil Sheikhs just Hit us Harder FINANCIALLY than 9/11 by Flooding the Northeast. This after Burning the Western Forests and Withering Southern Crops and Flooding the Midwest. If TERRORISTS hurt us as Bad as Wall Street they would be in GITMO or Carpet Bombed.
There are plenty of ways to shore up our borders, but nobody wants to do them. It's going to take mass casualities spilling over into the US for anyone to do anything. This isn't something that has been going on overnight. The issue is two sided though, the Republicans won't act because doing most of them would require taking away private land from wealth rangers, the Democrats won't because it would require them to shore up the borders and that would essentially halt illegal immigrant workers (which I agree we need). The issue is complex and requires hard decisions. Something no politician in Washington wants his name attached to.
Drugs are lose-lose. You will never make money trafficking drugs. You will harm your health and harm others with your sales, including children. Drugs ruin lives. Drugs ruin nations.
Really? So if I understand you correctly, Budweiser, Jack Beam and RJ Reynolds have destroyed this country? If so, who are all of those millions buying those companies' drugs?
Most of the world's nations have made the same choices as we in the US have: make some drugs illegal. So they agree with me not you lol. And it's a science thing. Modern medicine says "no" to illegal drugs.
robertd188 you are ignorant and pathetic.
Mexico is a horrible disaster, and unfortunately its just getting started.
Mexico will return to normal. American kids buy weed, adults buy meth and coke, and Mexican elite, police and military leaders profit. It worked fine for decades and will return. Don't like it, tell your kids why they shouldn't go down that path instead of the just say no BS. Pena Prieto will do what Mexican presidents have done for decades. Sit down with leaders of Cartels, carve out territories on a map, tell them what the tax will be, and set ground rules – don't sell local (only USA), don't bother the average citizen, etc. Follow the rules and we see nothing. Break them and the military will interfere in your business. As long as Americans buy, nothing will change.
"As long as Americans buy, nothing will change." Actually, as long as there'is drug-prohibition, nothing will change.
Mexico not only will not "return to normal", it is going to get a lot worse. Barbarism. Complete breakdown and tragedy. What you don't understand is that the political liability for what is happening, and much more so for what is yet to come, is growing exponentially. There is a lag time between cause and effect in politics. History books are being written...about the wholesale destruction of Mexico by a colossus.
Sorry Fareed, but absent from your narrative was 1 word about prohibition. You called it "drug violence", which in fact, is nothing of the sort. It's drug-law violence, and until that phrase and the word "prohibition" are used in the narrative, the US and the world will be stuck on stupid and continue to allow for this insanity all because of dried plants and the jobs created by sustaining their demonization.
Great point. It makes people think the violence is caused by taking the drugs. It is violence related to territorial battles due to the black market nature of drugs. Al Capone was not guilty of "alcohol violence", he violently defended his bootlegging territory.
Legalizing drugs would weaken the cartels more than any other action. It would immediately transfer the revenue they generate to legitimate businesses here in the US/abroad. I've heard the argument that the cartels will simply step up kidnappings or other crime to fill the gap. That is ridiculous and in itself not a good reason to discount legalization. There is nothing they could do to fill in that gap. They could recover a small portion through other crime but they would forever be much smaller. The illicit nature of the drugs and the demand together is what gives them their value, with the illicit nature having a great magnifying effect. A pound of apples is about $2. A pound of pot, which is easier and cheaper to grow, is thousands for a pound, and only because it is illegal.
UHHHHH maybe because it's not our freaking country so we shouldn't worry about it. Let them solve their own problems.
Matt you are a bobafide MORON. Congratulations for taking the gold medal of the most profusely confused little minds. In Satan's eyes you da man, he's got you held with a little rope, and move you like a puppet. You ought to find your conscience. Now this is beyong human thinking, and far deeper than the demonic thoughts that control you.
Hey Matt , Yo.. dog, hey really, think just diminutely for a few seconds: so many deaths in so many places affecting so many families and childre. Man I'm sorry if you was hurt as a child or at any time. Look, there has to be some sense inside your mind. Think of so many, thousands and thousands of victimized women and children and so on. Jut your disparating comments deserve special attention. We'll be praying for you Bubba.
Of course its being ignored, I live near Port Angles WA state and the DEA just built a $6 million plush office for 42 agents that have nothing to do but harass the Spanish looking people who live in the area, they need to close the office down, keep one and send the others to the Mex border
That we dont care that our kids are dying from drugs...all will come back to us from the back door...OBAMA said he will wipe the opium fields in Afghanistan...did he do anything???NOP NOP NOP where are the news to remind him......2012 is not tomorrow...it today and soon
Thanks
Read THE DIMENSION MACHINE
Want to solve the stupid War on Drugs?
LEGALIZE and TAX NOW !!
Problem solved. No more cartels. No more money flowing out of the country into the hands of criminals.
.
Stop the war on drugs. It is the most pointless war ever waged. People will always want to do recreational drugs and they will always be able to find them no matter what. I enjoy using drugs to enhance my life experiences and so do millions of other people. Worry about murderers and rapists instead.
You've got ____ for brains.
Reblogged this on tmaness.
The drug wars are being ignored because the Hollywood elite that are proping up the Democrat party are heavy cocaine users. They don't WANT the drug war to be won. As for Mitt Romney, he probably just realizes that making an issue about drugs won't be very fruitful politically. Why? Because drug users would be turned off and non-drug users really don't care. People in America are so incredibly selfish that they are only concerned about their little jobs. They have zero concern for the greater good.
Who cares about Mexico. What's being ignored is our border wall.
Legalize it all turn it into a healthcare issue to be handled by Doctors and not police and prisons.
Legalize marijuana to grow and to sell in adult only stores and manage it just like alcohol limiting home growers to a certain size and scope of operation before mandating permits and government regulation such as for commercial operations.
Wasting money and lives is never a good thing.
We are better than this.
Give mexican farmers a way to farm to sell to a well regulated american marketplace.
If we treat this problem like alcohol addiction and alcohol prohibition we would all be better off.
This so called war on drugs is a sham! I don't partake on drugs but drugs should be legalized. I suggest CNN reports on how the US has become such a huge police state instead. The prisons which are becoming huge private businesses are lobbying hard to keep the customers coming. And what is the easiest way to get prisoners? It is to have draconian drug laws. The poor are sent to jail while the reach thieves are free with impunity. There goes your liberty and freedom for all.
When street drugs are made legal we will be fine. The tens of thousands of new drug addicts will be able to get free medical treatment under the world saving Obama care program. Just saying...
Why is the media ignoring the Drug Gangs in the US? Why is the mainstream news media ignoring Obama's Chicago? 10 shootings per day by the drug gangs, one innocent kid murdered each week by the drug gangs. No cop dare take down a drug gang member less Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Barack Obama come to town and crucify the cop for taking out one of them!! And the poor people in the neighborhoods will vote Democrat again while they watch their children slaughtered. That should be the headline – Chicago Blacks support Democrats who support the killing of their kids!
Ted Galen Carpenter, WHY would anyone listen to a CATO "Think tank" fear-mongerer i.e. Koch boy like you? Your handlers aren't making enough money off of fear at the border yet?
Because Barack Obama refuses to secure the Southern borders, so as to keep illegal immigrants coming into the U.S for welfare support and future Democrat voters....
I can speak from experience. I just retired after over thirty years with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration with assignments throughout the southwest U.S., Mexico, Central America, and South America.Trust me, I can speak with authority on this issue. They are ignoring the drug issue because it's President Nixon's War on Drug that just won't go away. There are several big issues here: 1. The complicity and total corruption of Mexico's national, state, and local government officials, including elected, military, and police. The place is rotten to the core, but it is politically incorrect to say that. 2. The U.S. Government's "special handling" of Mexican issues. We won't tell the Mexicans directly that they are rotten to the core and we know it. Mexico is the famous "Emperor with No Clothes" yet we won't call them down on it. We can threaten Iran or North Korea, but Mexico continues to get "special handling". 3. Our failure to deport illegal aliens in large numbers, many of whom are drug traffickers or complicit in the drug business. 4. Our failure to push Mexico to locate and arrest Joaquin Guzman aka/Chapo, who is their highest level trafficker. If we can locate Osama and Seal Team 6 can terminate him, we can do the same with Chapo. 5. No followup on Mexican arrests: We see each week the Mexican police officials parade arrestees and cartel members before TV cameras to announce more arrests, but there is no tracking mechanism that can tell you where they are the next day in the criminal justice system. For all we know, they could be released the next day.
The bottom line here is that an enormous number of Mexicans, Mexican immigrants, and illegal immigrants from Mexico are heavily involved in drug trafficking and no one wants to deal with that because they might be called racists.
I recall reading a report from an office in Colombia two years ago where a high level Colombian trafficker who was under arrest told our personnel that "when we started dealing with the Mexicans, we were appalled by their greed". Isn't that ironic....the pot calling the kettle black.
Like Vietnam and Afghanistan, this is a war that was lost long ago. It is time to legalize weed, tax it to death, declare a victory and go home. My closing comment is that Mexico is our biggest national security threat and always has been.
Sir, YOU are so wrong to say that 'an enormous' amount of immigrants are drug cartel members, you really have no authority to say that, everyone knows it is pure B.S. I am full blown Mexican and I have never met a single drug cartel member here in the U.S or in Mexico. Secondly from many reports I have read, I have come to understand that Colombia's drug lords are far more ruthless. Anyways, immigration is down to net zero, and in case you have not kept up with news lately, Mexico is actually getting a better economy, slowly but surely. Look it up. It is part of the reason immigration is at an all time low.
Hello???? Because you end up in a box? Mexico, in my opinion (obviously; LOL) is a failed state. This is the sad FACT,whether or not the powers that be want to admit it. It is so obvious that it makes you wince. "Mejico lindo." ¿Dónde te has ido? OK "¡VIVA ZAPATA!"
The drug cartels control the police and large parts of the government in Mexico.
Drugs are already legal in the US. Pain killers are supplied to millions of adults under the guise of medication. Many are people who do not need it. They are addicted and still have enough to sell some to others who are then addicted. Your friends and neighbors are heroin addicts, oxy C addicts, etc,, They can not afford Pot so rely on the hard drugs supplied by the government. Housewives have been addicted to methamphetamines for years but call them diet pills. The affluent have always had access to narcotics but justify their abuse by calling it medication. What a bunch of hippocrits we are.
I guess my point is that the $ involved with the "legal" drugs are why no outcry has been heard here regarding them. The illegal drugs coming from and thru Mexico undermine legitimate drug $ales so have generated a huge response in the form of the drug war. Why our leaders do not wish to talk about it is because, I think, they do not wish to open the debate regarding our drug culture and the legitimate $uppliers we protect and who fund thier campaigns.
I cannot believe that many people post on here that they believe drugs should be legal. (Thats what we need is for crack heads to openly use crack anywhere, among your children and all) Alcohol is legal and you dont like drunks running around freely do you? They cause many problems among society, drunk driving, violence, ect. Legalizing drugs would just make it worse. A crack head is much worse than a drunk, (Legalizing drungs won't stop a crack head from sucking dick for crack lol) I believe the answer is a full scale war against these drug cartels and their leaders eliminated. I am aware that other cartels would just rise up and take their place but we shouldn't wait until they are too powerful to pose a much greater risk than they already do. The artical said that they have taken over many countries in Central America all ready. They should be treated as the same threat as terrorism and they border us! They cross over our borders and so does their violence! Many U.S. lives have been lost already yet no serrious action has been taken against this threat.
You are right of course a crack head is worse than a drunk BUT..and this is a huge BUT..If we made drugs legal...Then treatment would be a vialble option instead of PRISON..How meny drunks go to jail for possesion of Booze ? Yea OK...So you see there would be options vialble and OPEN for these addicted people to recieve help..
I personaly do not think HARD DRUGS should be legal..BUT another huge BUT...More people are addicted to DRUGS PRESCRIBED TO THEM..BY THERE DOCTORS IN AMERICA THAN ALL ILLEGAL DRUGS..COMBINED....So you see..we already support a form of legalization of drugs in AMerica..Except these drugs come from HUGE PHARMACUTICAL COMPANIES...and are dispensed in Pharmacies across or Nation..In other words Big Political FRIENDS are makeing Money..and in AMerica ..Thats enough to turn a blind eye to whats going on..Now..Illegal drugs or lets just say NON-CONTROLED drugs could be made legal..Thereby taking 98% of the Market AWAY from the Cartels...Poof..Gone is there income..Cartels are Banking on the fact that American Politicians and business leaders will keep the WAR ON DRUGS going so they can reap huge profits in the BLACK MARKET..
Im not advocating Heroin or Coke or Meth...But with the slaughter of Innocent lives just SOuth of our Borders and Cartels seeping into our Cities and towns across this Nation...Our ongoing DRUG WAR...well it's a dismal DEFEAT...and Mexico is paying the price for Americas FAILURE...Americas CONSUMPTION...AMERICAS POLITICS..It's insane...
I am an American living in a small town, here in Mexico....This report is so false....I dont see anything going on here like what he is saying...
and what did you say your source of income was in Mexico ????
STEVE ARNOLD- Are you sure your not getting Mexico confused with Canada? Im curious as to what small Mexican town you live in. Do you really beleive this isnt going on? If your town isnt in northern Mexico then you should take a trip there, near the border, spend a couple of days there and tell us what you see.
If you read the "Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein, it is entirely possible that the USA is just letting this region get so out of control that it urgently needs major intervention from the USA to stabilize it, and then use that pretense to enact its 'surgical' measures of rebuilding the countries and economies as they wish for their own benefit. After seeing what has happened before in South America under their tutelage and what is now going on with Greece and Spain, it would not surprise me in the least. By doing this, the US would gain control over its closest neighbors, their massive oil wealth in Mexico, and be better able to control its immigration from the other side as well as this side. Then they could get Mexico to pay for our immigration problem – actually it should! – but the big mulitnationals and the politicians would benefit the most, as usual. Read up on this and tell me it doesn't make perfect sense!! Very scary but very true!
We could intervene..If Mexico would allow AMerican soldiers ..We could take back the border towns..Arresting Cartels leaders and memebers is a no show tatic..We try and deal with the Problem at our border from afar..Thru the Court system..The Cartels are not impressed...
One big factor would be to strangle there money flow..and to do that we need to leagalize POT Nationaly...This would put a huge crinmp in the Mexican Cartels opperation fund...Our War on Drugs has failed because we (AMERICA)like back in the 20's and 30's have created a BLACK MARKET for drug use..and over the course of fourty five plus years have watched these smuggelers merge and remerge into Huge CARTELS with vast Money and influance...All the while hoping Meico would do SOMTHING about our Problem...Well they have not because our Home CONSUMPTION has not abated one bit...The Cartels are RICH BECAUSE OF AMERICA they are DANGEROUS BECAUSE OF AMERICA...Our War On Drugs Has assured this outcome...We have created the Murduring thugs that terrorize the Northern Mexican countryside...
Why is it ignored by the Politicians ?? Because they KNOW there WAR ON DRUGS is a disgrace..They know there is only ONE COURSE OF ACTION..left to America and Mexico..yet they refuse to make that mental concession because of fear of Backlash ....Americas war on drugs has painted Washington into a corner..more like they have done that to themseves...and we either begin to realize that we could Put boots on the Ground in Mexico (IF ASKED) and or reevaluate what we are trying to accomplish...Beyond having Law enforment Pose with Bales of Pot or Bricks of Coke as a poster child for the legitimatcy of our Drug War...We have not taken a look at this POLICy since it's inception..Yes way back in the 70's....we have plodded along spending Hundreds of Millions for basicly ZERO GAIN...and now tens of thousands of lost lives across the border...
If Mexico Legalized Pot as did America..The cartels money flow would be CUT IN HALF almost overnight..thats less money for them to bribe less for them to buy guns less for them to employ there murduring thugs...With a weakened Cartels....Perhaps a joint mission along the US Mexican border would be a success.....But that would require the UNITED STATES and MEXICO to look at POT in a different light.and for meny on either side of the Border well thats just worse than thousands of DEAD...and Money FAT Cartels...Killing innocent people at will...
WE HAVE TO HAVE OUR PRIORITIES NOW DONT WE....but are they the correct ones....
No the war is not being ignored, 'It is said if you can't win them join them'. America is fighting the war by legalizing the drugs!
Lol, funny comments.