I used the term flippantly to describe Mexican Federal law enforcement.
Checking google (after typing the above), I don’t believe I was hugely far off, though if you want to point out that the Mexican army is not the same as Federal law enforcement, be my guest.
What makes you think we don’t already provide them with a lot of equipment or that they don’t have enough of it? I always thought the problem with the federal and local authorities in Mexico, both law enforcement and the court system, was more a problem of corruption than lack of expertise or equipment. I think throwing more money and equipment at the problem has not been working very well in Mexico or, as someone else pointed out, Colombia.
From NPR last month, Pressure Rises For More U.S. Aid In Mexico Drug War : NPR
Hence the “proven-honest” qualifier in my first post on the subject. I’m assuming at least some of the Mexican power structure can be trusted. If not, then the issue is moot and nothing short of fomenting revolution is likely to work, and likely not even then.
I beg your pardon? Revolution? Try owning up to your responsibilty and legalize. But that of course is impossible in such a morally superior country as your own.
No argument from me on either point, i.e. legalization is good, and my country (Canada) is morally superior.
Bryan’s profile says he lives in Montreal. So he’s not suggesting his country go to war–he’s recommending it to us.
Sorry, no. The US needs to change its laws to make the drug trade less profitable. And our government needs to work with Mexico’s to improve the lots of the people of both countries.
Some of our wingnuts are convinced that our first tentative steps toward UHC have us on the slippery slope to Commie Domination. Perhaps some of them will embark on a crusade to free Our Northern Neighbor from such tyranny! WIll Bryan embrace his “liberators”?
Why can’t we do both, like the late Earl Warren?
No seriously, there are good reasons for not invading Mexico – in fact it’s so strange to even think about it that I can barely believe I just typed that. But not being able to legalize over here is not one of them. It’s like screaming that we shouldn’t care about universal health care until there aren’t any starving children in the world.
Hey, Canada’s got your back!
And I mean that in the geographical sense, i.e. we’re on the opposite side from Mexico.
While tragic, the large number of drug related murders in Mexico don’t qualify as anything even close to a pretext for an invasion. I’d say this idea is not on the table, but actually it’s not even in the kitchen. Aside from the military being overstretched and the deficit being huge, and fact that the chaos would be a boon to drug cartels and not a hindrance, imagine the effects a war would have on trade and consider the administration trying to sell an invasion of Mexico to the U.S. population.
We get something like a quarter of our oil imports from Mexico, I suspect the resulting spike in gas prices would piss off the American public enough that whoever ordered the invasion would pay some pretty hefty consequences.
Agree that just legalizing the more popular drug imports would be a better plan. Note that we’d have to legalize production (or at least importation), though, and not just consumption. And I believe the largest chunk of the drug cartel money comes from cocaine, so while I think when people talk about drug legalization they picture legalizing personal consumption of pot, the reality is that to kill off the Mexican drug cartels, we’d have to legalize US production of Cocaine (is that even possible now that I think about it, can you grow coca in the US? Well, I guess you could just legalize importation of either the plant or the raw materials)
Colombia’s improved significantly in the last ten years. That’s a product, however, of both governmental successes in restoring order and popular confidence in the government.
Right now Mexico has neither, but its problems are not as bad as Colombia’s either. The narco-traffickers are battling with law enforcement and the military, but they’re not trying to set up a guerrilla statelet within Mexico.
If Mexico asked for American helicopter gunships etc., I suppose it’s possible that we might agree to send them. I don’t see that happening, though, and I don’t see the US ever going in without Mexican approval.
It seems to me that the problem with legalization is that it can’t reasonably go far enough. Legalization of pot seems plausible. Cocaine, maybe. Heroin possibly under very limited circumstances. But methamphetamines? Can you really foresee any reasonable possibility that that could ever happen? Is it really even a good idea?
Is that when we gave them a bunch of CH-43 helicopters that were in such a state of disrepair that they ended up giving them back?
Poor Mexico. So far from god, so close to the United States.
What do you mean by “we,” Paleface?
Maybe, but hopefully as you move to harder and harder drugs, the market becomes smaller and smaller. A cartel that can support itself off of pot and Cocaine sales might find it harder to do so off Meth and Heroin. No doubt there will still be a criminal element dealing in such drugs if they remain illegal, but ideally they wouldn’t have the funds to support their own armed pseudo-states.
I rack up points for you for this post. I can just see us eating up Mexico’s adulation, nam, nam, nam! 
This is a really stupid idea, and it does not appear that the OP has any interest in actually defending his thesis.
I say we go in there and kick some brown ass! Amirite?! Huh? Huh? Who’s with me?
I find it interesting people from other countries are crowing at us about “legalization.”
How many countries in the world have legalized the following things for consumer recreational use:
-Marijuana
-Heroin
-Cocaine
-Meth
You guys may be surprised to find out that even the “softest” of drugs like marijuana is illegal in most countries, even most of Europe.
Now, in many places it is significantly “decriminalized”, but that doesn’t mean the black market doesn’t exist. For example last I heard Canada has something like $6 billion in annual production value from illegal cannabis “grow-ops.”
So even in a country with very liberal drug laws compared to the United States, you still have a thriving black market.
Pretty much the only thing I can see eliminating the black market for products like marijuana (or mota) is when the laws are such that you can buy it in Wal-Mart. Decriminalization will just make it easier for end-users to not worry about getting busted for small amounts, but it will still leave the production (and the real money making) in the hands of violent organizations like Mexican drug cartels that will kill anyone who tries to compete with them.
Well, instead of spending trillions on Iraq, why don’t we spend trillions on Mexico, creating jobs and a middle class who don’t want to live in a narco state?
I’m talking out my ass here though. I’m ashamed to say I don’t know much about Mexico really. They’ve got tons of open space and sunshine. We need lots of base load power and I think nuke plants are probably too expensive for the US, but what about Mexico? Solar and wind too, of course.
They’re getting close.
How bad has it gotten when the President has to “insist” to media that the government is still in charge?
Full legalization of marijuana alone would make a big difference.
See this article for more about the economics of the cartels.