America's Third War: Texas Strikes Back

[Rich_Olszewski]

Perhaps these honest individuals need to reach out to other (presumably better armed) countries for assistance.

I imagine that most Americans would welcome fighting the drug cartels in Mexico then waiting for them to get across our border.

Won’t happen. Mexico has as history of rejecting foreign influence, often forcefully - ask the French!

 

[vz71]

Won’t happen. Mexico has as history of rejecting foreign influence, often forcefully - ask the French!

Then do not get indignant with people placing blame squarely on top of the government of Mexico.

If the government will not ask for help in handling a problem that is clearly beyond them, then they are guilty of complicity in the act.

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

Then do not get indignant with people placing blame squarely on top of the government of Mexico.

If the government will not ask for help in handling a problem that is clearly beyond them, then they are guilty of complicity in the act.

I have no doubt whatever that the Mexican government is getting assistance from at least the U.S. D.E.A., particularly in the way of intelligence, and training. Other countries may be involved as well.

They cannot have American police and military operating openly in their country any more than we would want Mexican police and soldiers operating in ours.

 

[puzzleannie]

President Barack Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano have recently said the Mexican border is more secure now than it has been in 20 years, but some along this border strongly disagree.

"To suggest the southwest border is secure is ridiculous," said Holland.

not here in Starr, Hidalgo and Cameron counties, nor to the border counties to the west of us which are even worse.

please pray for those in towns on the other side of the border displaced from their homes by the cartels who have overtaken entire towns and left the residents homeless. At the same time law enforcement on this side is fighting the drug transport they are also relentless against transmigrantes seeking their own safety over here with family.

 

[kimmielittle]

The border problems have been ignored by Washington for YEARS, so I hope you’ll include the members of previous administrations in your forced relocation.

O’kay I’ll agree to that…If you agree that this is irresponsible to say,
“President Barack Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano have recently said the Mexican border is more secure now than it has been in 20 years,”.

 

[kimmielittle]

:

 

[Darryl1958]

At the least? Not so.

The Mexican government is anti-cartel, and has done much within its power to fight the cartels. There are, contrary to the opinion of smug Americans, honest Mexican police and honest Mexican soldiers opposed to the cartels. Many of those honest men have died fighting the cartels.

The government is outspent and outgunned by the cartels, but that doesn’t mean that it is, across the board, owned by the drug lords.

The Mexican government is very corrupt.

Always has been.

Many have died fighting the cartels, true enough.

Bigger guns, bigger paychecks, and no ethical qualms about killing anyone honest enough to get in their way.

That is how the cartels operate.

Whether Americans are smug or not is really irrelevant. This is just the way it is in Mexico. It is the biggest game in town. No amount of liberal making nice and walking on the happy side of life is going to change that grim reality.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War
reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6331DZ20100404

 

[kimmielittle]

Whether Americans are smug or not is really irrelevant.

 

[Darryl1958]

I have and I think it’s the only way to stop the cartels.

As the cartels more and more define the real power in Mexico, their incursions across the border will likely be more and more viewed as acts of war rather than just criminal acts

Unfortunately, any official which tries to do something about it is either shot, stabbed, blown up, or their family kidnapped. The police and military are corrupt to the core and just to put into perspective the seriousness of the drug war, as if the above isn’t enough, nearly 30,000 people have been killed in the last 4 years alone including judges, politicians, police, prosecutors, and innocent civilians. The drug cartels are the real power in Mexico and the government has demonstrated that it is incapable of stopping them.

Phase II is the cartels establishing themselves as warlords in some kind of feudal Mexican state. As they more and more control the wealth of society, they will want to find ways to protect it.
For now anarchy is working for them. But greed breeds order. It is the way of the world.

 

[Darryl1958]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War
The birth of all Mexican drug cartels are traced to former Mexican Judicial Federal Police agent Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (‘The Godfather’), who in the 1980s controlled all illegal drug trade in Mexico and the corridors across the Mexico-USA border.37

That is an interesting tidbit.It brings back memories of how the thugs running the KGB in the times of the Soviet empire became the kingpins of the Russian mafia when the walls of the USSR came tumbling down.

 

[stanmaxkolbe]

O’kay I’ll agree to that…If you agree that this is irresponsible to say,
“President Barack Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano have recently said the Mexican border is more secure now than it has been in 20 years,”.

**HOOAH! **You’re too cool you got it going on.

 

[donsnow]

I think that the Mexican-Spanish-Tejano culture is a beautiful one, with a great expression of Catholicism.

It is too bad that this great arrangement was corrupted by their northern neighbor–if it wasn’t for gutless Americans consuming Latin American narcotics as fast as the ‘donkeys’ can carry it there, there wouldn’t be this vicious war.

As long as there’s dealers, there will be buyers. The fault is on both sides.
It’s wrong to deal in drugs, a Satanic lure. That there’s buyers doesn’t exonerate the illicit drug scene.

Don’t tell me our third graders asked drug dealers to come on their campuses and lure tots onto drugs.

Poverty is no excuse to grow, manufacture, transport and deal drugs, which are slow death. There’s billions of people on this planet who are poor and have Christ-like endurance of gross poverty, but don’t grow, transport nor deal drugs to break the poverty cycle. So, the growers, transporters and dealers of drugs can be just as gutless as the buyers.

 

[donsnow]

Yes. If there were no demand, there’d be no supply, and if there were not great demand, then the cartels wouldn’t be doing big business from it.

You should see some of the marketing tactics of the dealers on the streets. Some of those people just don’t know how to take ‘no’ for an answer. The supplier, in this age, can always instigate a demand.

 

[agnes_therese]

O’kay I’ll agree to that…If you agree that this is irresponsible to say,
“President Barack Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano have recently said the Mexican border is more secure now than it has been in 20 years,”.

Of course it’s irresponsible. Didn’t I say the border’s been ignored by Washington for years? Both Bush administrations, Clinton’s, and now Obama’s.

 

[Darryl1958]

Of course it’s irresponsible. Didn’t I say the border’s been ignored by Washington for years? Both Bush administrations, Clinton’s, and now Obama’s.

So it is agreed then. All those who insist that they have kept the border safe can put their money where their mouth is and live there.

 

[estesbob]

Yes. If there were no demand, there’d be no supply, and if there were not great demand, then the cartels wouldn’t be doing big business from it.

The best solution would be to just legalize drugs. The current war on drugs has caused a greater erosion of our civil rights than anything else in the last 50 years. In addition it has spawned a gangster culture that has resulted in a third of African-American men being in prison. We could spend a fraction of the money we spend on the war on drugs on treatment and we would all be better off. I say this, by the way, as recovering alcoholic that hasn’t had a drink 25 years and never did drugs as Budweiser is cheaper messed up me up just as good as drugs would.

 

[Darryl1958]

The best solution would be to just legalize drugs. The current war on drugs has caused a greater erosion of our civil rights than anything else in the last 50 years. In addition it has spawned a gangster culture that has resulted in a third of African-American men being in prison. We could spend a fraction of the money we spend on the war on drugs on treatment and we would all be better off. I say this, by the way, as recovering alcoholic that hasn’t had a drink 25 years and never did drugs as Budweiser is cheaper messed up me up just as good as drugs would.

A question I hear from Michael Medved on the subject is “Do you think that legalizing drugs would lead to more, or less people using those drugs”?

It is hard for me to believe that there would be less.

More lives would be ruined then.

Moreover, as an analogy, even if prohibition created a gangster culture supplying alcohol to a thirsty America, it was not legalizing booze that led to the demise of the mafias that capitalized on this black market.

It was RICO.

That is to say, whatever else happens, what is absolutely needed is a unified will to protect the border.

 

[dusty_david]

The best solution would be to just legalize drugs. The current war on drugs has caused a greater erosion of our civil rights than anything else in the last 50 years. In addition it has spawned a gangster culture that has resulted in a third of African-American men being in prison. We could spend a fraction of the money we spend on the war on drugs on treatment and we would all be better off. I say this, by the way, as recovering alcoholic that hasn’t had a drink 25 years and never did drugs as Budweiser is cheaper messed up me up just as good as drugs would.

Do you have any idea of what legalization of drugs would do to the southwest’s economy!!?? That would destroy the narco and prison industries! Thousands would lose their jobs. Starving drug dealers will be begging for change outside the 7-11s. Police officers will be bored to tears patrolling quiet streets. Suddenly the cities will be flush with tax dollars as law enforcement costs collapse.

Yup, I’m sarcastic. But there is a ton of $ and lots of people invested in keeping illegal drugs in the streets and hundreds of thousands of young men in prison.

Next thing you liberals will demand that our farmers legally hire crop pickers instead of using (and abusing) illegal mexicans. No respect for black market capitalism.

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

Do you have any idea of what legalization of drugs would do to the southwest’s economy!!?? That would destroy the narco and prison industries! Thousands would lose their jobs. Starving drug dealers will be begging for change outside the 7-11s. Police officers will be bored to tears patrolling quiet streets. Suddenly the cities will be flush with tax dollars as law enforcement costs collapse.

Yup, I’m sarcastic. But there is a ton of $ and lots of people invested in keeping illegal drugs in the streets and hundreds of thousands of young men in prison.

I see no sarcasm. It was said that during Prohibition there were three factions that wanted to keep alcohol illegal - preachers in religious groups that were against alcohol, bootleggers, and “Prohibition agents.” All would have lost business from legalization. So, your remark isn’t all that off the mark.

I’ve never used pot in my life, I drink the usual alcoholic beverages, but have never been drunk in my 68 years, and I’m for the legalization of both!

 

[estesbob]

A question I hear from Michael Medved on the subject is “Do you think that legalizing drugs would lead to more, or less people using those drugs”?

It is hard for me to believe that there would be less.

More lives would be ruined then.

Moreover, as an analogy, even if prohibition created a gangster culture supplying alcohol to a thirsty America, it was not legalizing booze that led to the demise of the mafias that capitalized on this black market.

It was RICO.

That is to say, whatever else happens, what is absolutely needed is a unified will to protect the border.

I agree we need a unified will protect the border. However the job will be a lot easier if we didn’t expend billions of dollars trying to stop recreational drug use. I am sure more people would use drugs if it was legalized. And as with alcohol and other potentially addictive substances some will become addicted, most will not. But the United States can tax the sales, make sure the drugs are of uniform quality and provide treatment for those who have problems saving billions of dollars a year.