Mexico's War

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
September 10, 2008
Pg. 14

The government's battle against drug gangs is deadlier than most Americans realize.

Many people in Washington are rightly alarmed about the rising toll of military and civilian casualties in Afghanistan. They might be surprised to learn that a roughly equal number of people have been killed so far this year in a war raging much closer to home -- in Mexico. More Mexican soldiers and police officers have died fighting the country's drug gangs in the past two years than the number of U.S. and NATO troops killed battling the Taliban. Civilian casualties have been just as numerous, and as gruesome: There have been scores of beheadings, massacres of entire families and assassinations of senior officials. By the official count, kidnappings in Mexico now average 65 a month, ranking it well ahead of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The challenge facing Mexican President Felipe Calderón, who courageously declared war on the drug syndicates shortly after taking office in December 2006, gets relatively little attention here because Americans are only rarely among the casualties. But U.S. money and weapons are fueling this war. Billions of dollars from American drug users flow to the syndicates, along with thousands of weapons smuggled across the border. Congress recently approved $400 million in aid for the Mexican government, most of which will be used to better arm and equip the army. The stakes are large for the United States: not just the success of Mr. Calderón's liberal and friendly government but the survival of Mexico's democracy; not just the stability of a neighbor but the ability of the United States to control illegal immigration.
Some Mexican officials argue that the scale of the violence points to the government's success -- by taking on and damaging the drug gangs, it has provoked a backlash. But most Mexicans appear to believe the government is losing the war. Tens of thousands marched in cities around the country on Aug. 30 to protest the government's failure to protect citizens. A 75-point, three-year strategy unveiled by Mr. Calderón earlier in the month, including proposals to build new prisons for drug traffickers and track gangsters through cellphones, looked underpowered to critics in the opposition and the media.
Mr. Calderón's biggest problem may be the absence of reliable forces. Most of Mexico's police are hired and managed locally; only 20,000 are federal. The army is less corrupt, but even the commitment of 40,000 troops has failed to turn the tide against the gangs. The new U.S. funding should help, but the next administration in Washington would do well to explore whether more assistance can be provided in training Mexican forces, much as U.S. advisers have helped professionalize the Colombian army. More must be done, too, to curtail the cross-border gun trafficking. Mexico's war is in its own way as critical to U.S. interests as Afghanistan's is; in both cases, a larger American commitment is needed.
 
Okay here's my problem with this. We are giving Mexico and Columbia in the Neighborhood of 400 Million Dollars in aid to "combat" illegal narcotics on their side of the border.

We are doing this knowing that we have thrown money at completely and utterly corrupt and incompetant orgnizations there in the past and the money went too nothing except lining the pockets of Ministers, Commandantes and Generals. We have given them militaryand law enforcement equipment including arms and radios only to find them in the hands of the Narco-Traffikers. We given them helo's and fixed wings only to discover they are being used for bird dogging for the cartels. And yet this time we think it's really gonna make a difference. Sorry I'm not that optimistic when it comes to Law Enforcement in Latin America.

Given the culture this money is gonna be used to buy alot of Condo's in Cartagena and Cabo San Lucas. Pay for alot of mistresses and probably some pretty nice rides for some pretty low life scumbags who bought their commands in the first place from some lowlife Minister or Presidente with money they got protecting the cartels or extorting it from other sources. They have no reason to be straight.

The cartels offer a deal "Plato o Plomo" Which translates into "Silver or lead." Which means you can take their money or they give you their bullets. Which explains why the good cops in these countries usually end up riddled with bullets in thier houses (along with their families) or in the streets. That happens to one Good Cop well the next guys are sure as hell take the payoffs.

Meanwhile in the US Police agencies are trouble as far lay off's. Grants have dried up from the federal goverment unless of course it's for equipment that DHS or FEMA thinks you need to make their jobs easier. DHS and DOJ are mandating all sorts of programs many dealing with the immigration problem but hey fund these yourself and hire the extra bodies on your own dime and since they have to be trained well thats on you locals too.

So when the TBSA (Texas Border Sheriff's Association) 19 Sheriffs from the Counties bordering Mexico asked for a cut of this to help combat it on their side of the border. Guess what DC told em to Piss up a rope. It wasn't important to DHS.

Just me but DC has skewed it's priorities all out of whack.
 
Back
Top