Mexico’s ‘failed state’ threat
The U.S. military says Mexico's drug war puts it at risk of sudden collapse.
Violence in Tijuana: What is the United States' responsibility?
(AP)
A new Pentagon study “concludes that Mexico is at risk of becoming a failed state,” said Joel Kurtzman in The Wall Street Journal, thanks to its ongoing “vicious drug war.” The violence and corruption are so bad that Mexico, like Pakistan, could see a “wholesale collapse of civil government.” President Felipe Calderón, “to his credit,” has sent 45,000 troops and 5,000 federal police to fight the drug traffickers, but the U.S. needs to do more, too.
The U.S. has already pledged $1.4 billion to “professionalize Mexico’s military and civil forces,” said Investor’s Business Daily in an editorial. But “in an era of big bailouts,” we can give more. We should also prepare “a military surge” to protect our southern border. “A collapsed state will bring millions of Mexicans spilling over our border,” probably including criminals, so this is more than a Mexican problem.
“To paraphrase an old saying, Mexico’s closest ally in this pursuit, the United States, also happens to be its worst enemy,” said Raul Yzaguirre in Arizona’s Tucson Citizen. Mexico’s drug lords are winning only because of America’s “huge demand for drugs” and easy supply of powerful weapons. Until the U.S. curbs its addiction problem, “the killing in Mexico will continue.”
Worse, while Mexico and Colombia “bleed themselves to death fighting ‘wars on drugs’ driven by the United States,” said Mexico’s La Jornada in an editorial (via WorldMeets.us), the U.S. “political class” focuses on “persecuting” Latino immigrants and profiting from the “voluminous trafficking in weapons.” So when the Bush administration talks of a Pakistan-like “failed state” in Mexico, it does so “with obvious exaggeration and bad faith.”
No, “I’d bet money,” said Rod Dreher in Beliefnet, that President-elect Obama “will have to fully militarize the US-Mexico border before he leaves office.” And he might even have to “invade Mexico” to “fight the narcotraffickers and prop up the government.” The only questions are how and when.
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10 Comments
Posted by Doc, Friday, January 16, 2009, 5:45 pm Yea rah General Pershing. We need to do it again. This time let's do more, much more, than he did.
Posted by Kam, Friday, January 16, 2009, 7:43 pm Forty years ago, Nixon brought up the attack on drug usage to differ attention from the war in Vietnam. In 1971, he coined the mantra, "War on Drugs" calling drugs, "public enemy number one". Since then the US has wasted billions on this unending "war" killing and imprisoning millions of citizens for drug usage over the decades. American citizens cannot tolerate an Iraqi War of fewer than seven years, where less than 5,000 lives have been lost but will support the 38 year old "war on drugs" with an outrageous death toll. What does anyone expect from wealthy drug lords in Mexico and Colombia? Legalize drugs and let those who wish to kill themselves through usage take personal responsiblity and just do it. Save the money to spend on the poor and homeless who need a hand up and those addicts who want a help out of their addictions. Never fear, this will never happen. The "war on drugs" has become a big business for the government. There are too many bureaucrats with fat government paychecks and retirement accounts, compliments of the taxpayers, and when was the last government program, other than prohibition, ever ended because it was a failure?
Posted by SDS, Friday, January 16, 2009, 10:28 pm It is not the responsibility of the U.S. to change its drug or gun laws to please Mexico. If Mexico doesn't like its citizens selling drugs into the U.S. and having them illegally import guns from there, it can shut down its own border, allow no one in or out, or shut its mouth. It claims to be a sovereign state after all.
Posted by Brett, Saturday, January 17, 2009, 9:54 am I don't think this has ever happened before, so I have to say it: Kam, I agree with you 100%!! Actually, it is beyond the legal scope of the government's authority to make drugs completely illegal, especially marijuana. What is their reason, because it's bad for you? How about losing your home and going to jail for years? That's a lot worse than potential health effects years down the road that seem to have been disproven by time. Fast food is bad for you, too, but you won't go to jail for it, not should you. The government can't legally do just whatever it wants to do and it can't outlaw possession of a natural plant any more validly than it can outlaw wearing clothes of a certain color. Take away the "outlaw thrill factor" and you will see all drug use go down. Fewer teens have tried drugs in the Netherlands and other places with more libertarian drug policies than they have here.
Posted by Terrance, Saturday, January 17, 2009, 4:26 pm Morality is at an all time low. Drug use,pornography you name it! Failed human beings is what it is all about. The rich taking everything they can take. What a mess.
Posted by Tech, Sunday, January 18, 2009, 11:25 am The "war on drugs" is a fraud because the USA is the largest market for them and a trillion dollars a year tax free will buy off or corrupt ANYONE. As the CIA as even used the illegal drug business(yeah I'm way off base -Mena, Arkansas anyone?) and has corrupted the top people running this country and I'm specific-the Bush family, the Clintons, the CIA and from Ruppert's investigations, Gary Webb, Danny Casolaro, the Iran/Contra BS a moron can see what's going on. As I know personally of the huge operations here protected by the FEDS through cash payoffs etc. maybe it's time to examine why Americans want to use these drugs to feel better if their lives are so great? Maybe it's time to make this country a better place and provide a decent life for every child instead of BS lies and sending them to Iraq ot corral an oil pool or two? Maybe it's time to take a hard look a "elections" and the real elitist rulers here and how they make their money. Maybe it's time to take the profit motive out and provide treatment to addicts not prison cells in private prisons where the judges get kickbacks per head locked up. This is just making the gangsters filthy rich and ruining the country while the "police" either take the payoffs from the real drug importers to look the other way while busting small fry and addicts. Prohibition never worked, it's a money making scheme for the criminals.
Posted by PA Davis, Sunday, January 18, 2009, 8:24 pm How dare Raul Yzaguirre in Arizona’s Tucson Citizen blame the American peoples' drug habits for the mass killings in Mexico. Americans do consume about 60% of the world's cocain, but we have plenty of drug dealers in our nation that do not kill large groups of people. The reason is not that our drug leaders are ethical, but they fear US law enforcement because our government can intimidate the black market. Mexico's government is intimidated by and partially controls their black market.
Posted by dualnational, Monday, January 19, 2009, 4:33 pm It is not the responsibility of the Mexico to change its drug or gun laws to please the U.S. If the U.S. doesn't like its citizens selling guns into Mexico and having them illegally import drugs from there, it can shut down its own border, allow no one in or out, or shut its mouth. It claims to be a sovereign state after all.
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