Soob

Politics, Foreign Policy, Current Events and Occasional Outbursts Lacking Couth

Friday, January 02, 2009

Photo and some Quotes: Mexico's Drug War

Mexican army sign in Ciudad Juarez: "We come to help you." via AFP

DHS Sec. Michael Chertoff:
"we are beginning to see more violence in some border communities and against our Border Patrol agents as these traffickers ... seek to protect their turf."
And then:
The Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center and the High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Investigative Support Center also predicted further spillage of drug-gang violence deep into the United States.
And last:
In April, the Justice Department reported that Mexican drug cartels represent the "largest threat to both citizens and law enforcement agencies in this country and now have gang members in nearly 200 U.S. cities." The 200 cities include Washington; Baltimore, Frederick and Greenbelt in Maryland; and Arlington and Galax in Virginia.
Oh, good times for us. Nothing garnishes a global economic crisis like an infiltration of domestic narco-urban-guerrillas. Let's stretch the abilities of municipal and state law enforcement right to the edge of their abilities, shall we? Thank you War on Drugs. You are, clearly, the gift that keeps on giving.

4 comments:

Jeff Wills said...

Interesting post Jay. This is an issue that is going to sneak up and bit us in the ass. Funny, many say "walls" on the border don't work. Well, the Israelis can attest to the BS of that opinion.

Jay@Soob said...

Yep, those walls might be an unfortunate but necessary form of deterrence.

Anonymous said...

I can tell you that a simple wall (while it may curb some of the peasant civilians trying to cross over) is NOT the solution in the case of the narcos. The narco networks are already set up on the U.S. side not to mention the sophisticated operational capacities of the cartels in Mexico against the police & military. They can carry this operational efficiency easily into the U.S.

Required reading on this is Gen. Barry McCaffrey's report on his visit to Mexico last month. It's posted in pdf format over on the Small Wars Journal blog:
http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2008/12/general-barry-mccaffrey-mexico/

Jay@Soob said...

Anon thanks for the heads up on the article