Mexican Mire
With the situation in Mexico deteriorating, one wonders what both their government and ours are contemplating. Are they just going to let the drug lords rack up another 20,000 killings, watching as the number of murders of innocents rises? Will the tourist industry dry up now as the slaughter claims diplomatic personnel and visitors?
The war in Mexico, for it is that, splashes onto the front pages in the United States every so often, when some particularly gruesome act takes place. Like the killing of sixteen young people at a party, apparently the victims of mistaken identity.
Three American consulate personnel were killed over the weekend. The White House announced that they are "outraged" by the killings but it seems very unlikely that besides warning Americans that certain parts of Mexico might be unsafe they will do anything.
There are several steps they might take but won’t. They could bring our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan and deploy them along the border, or even invade – I mean, loan them to the Mexican government. The cross-border criminality is severely taxing local law enforcement and Mexican gangs have invaded our national parks to grow pot, causing significant environmental damage.
We could stop the sale of enormous arsenals of guns and ammunition to people buying them for the drug lords, but the whacko gun nuts think the Second Amendment especially applies to selling guns to Mexican murderers.
We could legalize marijuana. Many states are already looking at it. Legalization would be deal a huge blow to the cartels, as well as making it safe again for people to visit our national parks.
Of course this is Mexico’s problem, but because their police and military are riddled with corruption, there is little likelihood that it will be resolved until we act. Our government isn’t as corrupt, not in the same way, but we are likely to be just as ineffective.
©2010 SetonnoteS
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