The Somalia Next Door
Is it me or is it really weird that we get more media coverage about predator drone kills of Taliban chieftains in Waziristan than the President of the United States openly speculating about putting troops on our border with Mexico?
President Obama weighed in Wednesday on the escalating drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border, saying that he was looking at possibly deploying National Guard troops to contain the violence but ruled out any immediate military move.
“We’re going to examine whether and if National Guard deployments would make sense and under what circumstances they would make sense,” Obama said during an interview with journalists for regional papers, including a McClatchy reporter.
“I don’t have a particular tipping point in mind,” he said. “I think it’s unacceptable if you’ve got drug gangs crossing our borders and killing U.S. citizens.”
I’m afraid that we are already at that tipping point. Perhaps the Department of Justice has better uses for scarce resources than investigating a Sheriff, at the political behest of far leftwing Congressmen, for enforcing U.S. immigration laws. Yeah, I’m sure Sheriff Joe is a media hound and something of an abrasive jerk but he’s enforcing the law and we have far greater security priorities than carrying out the ideological vendettas of New York Democrats. Like tracking down Zeta killer teams operating inside the U.S. ?
Failed State Mexico Links:
State of Siege: Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency (Full PDF Article) Stratfor reports on Mexico, news ignored by our mainstream media
Latest Academic Mexico Trip Report “Mexico: On the Road to a Failed State?” Mexico’s Instability Is a Real Problem
Mexico – Failed State/Failed Policies? Among top U.S. fears: A failed Mexican state
March 14th, 2009 at 2:09 am
Also worth noting:
*Sam Quinones’ essay in the most recent issue of Foreign Policy, "State of War"
*The Los Angeles Times special project "Mexico Under Siege"
* Joint Reserve Intelligence Center Report, "The Recruitment of Assassins by Mexican Drug Cartels
March 14th, 2009 at 3:39 am
P.S. Something I just came across tonight (H/T War News Updates) is Michael Braun’s testimony to the Subcommittee on National Security & Foreign Affairs, published via the Counterterrorism Blog. His description of the Mexican takeover of Columbian drug routes is particularly informative.
March 14th, 2009 at 4:10 am
Great post, Zen.
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Quick question: Do you know the degree to which Mexico puts it’s soldiers its border with the US? I ask only because whenever a US military force beefs up border enforcement, there are howls from the left about the evils of "militarizing" the border. If Mexico places its soldiers on its northern border, than the border is already militarized, and thus we could greatly expand support given to our civilian border patrol by Army, Navy, Coast Guard, and National Guard troops, without fear of ceding any apparent moral high ground.
Semper Fidelis,
SE
March 14th, 2009 at 5:22 am
@SE: The Mexicans do not have many soldiers on the border itself, but they do have a large-scale military presence in many border cities. Take Ciudad Jaurez, where Pres. Calderon responded to the forced resignation of the Juarez police cheif by sending an extra 5,000 troops into the city in order to restore order.
Consider also that the Mexican government uses its air and sea power to hunt and track drug runners trying to get across the border. Ironically, the assets used to do so are often the end product of the Merida Imitative- effectively meaning that America has already militarized the other side of the border.
March 14th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Hi SE,
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Regarding the number of Mex troops on the border, ping Adam Elkus on that. he and LT. John Sullivan have been collaborating on research in this area. Mexican troops have illegally crossed the border on many occasions, which if it had been American troops doing that, all diplomatic hell would break loose. I’m pretty sure T. Greer is right that up to the edge of the border, there are very few unless it is an urban neighborhood crossing.
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Hi T. Greer – many thanks for the helpful links!
March 19th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Gee Z,Your site looks good! I miss your comments at P6 although I mostly disagree with you. I am really surprised, however, to read you defending Sheriff Joe. Yes, he is enforcing something but it is a stretch to call what he is doing "law enforcement." All the best,
March 20th, 2009 at 4:28 am
Hi PPTCruiser
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Ah, good to hear from you – and you are right, I should drop by P6 more often. My blogging activities have become erratic due to grad school ( second masters, doing an accelerated program for work) and a sequence of small book projects and I’ve stopped commenting on about a dozen blogs where I used to put in a semi-regular appearance.
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Regarding Sherrif Joe, there’s a knucklehead-hardass edge to how he’s carrying out his sweeps but the Feds have totally dropped the ball on immigration, mostly on purpose for reasons of cheap labor and identity politics. A sensible and flexible enforcement of immigration laws by the Feds coupled with a guest worker system would reduce a majority of these problems and the political traction of local enforcement. We face a larger problem though. If Mexico collapses into Colombia style-anarchy – and I think the odds are about 50-50 in the next two years that it will – the currently dysfunctional border system ensures that the violence will spill into the United States on a large scale. We will also have a refugee problem rather than an immigration problem that will make the latter look minor in comparison.