THE HIGH COST OF COURAGE

Mexican president Felipe Calderon has been brave enough to try to
wrestle back control of his country from the vicious drug cartels that
have been terrorizing border areas and, increasingly, major Mexican
cities for years. Some of Calderon's foot soldiers - he has put about
30,000 armed troops into the field - have been brave enough to risk
their lives when it would be far easier for them to allow themselves
to be corrupted by the cartels.

The price for this courage has been high and is getting higher - more
than 100 people were killed as a result of drug-related violence last
week in Mexico, including about 20 police officers. One of the dead
was Edgar Millan Gomez, the chief of the Mexican federal preventive
police. Thousands of ordinary Mexican citizens marched through the
streets of Juarez (just across the Texas border) on Sunday to protest
the incredible violence that has crippled their nation and paralyzed
their own lives.

It's time for America to show a little courage, too, and not just
because the true source of all the violence - drug demand - lies on
our side of the border. Apart from the fact that the violence in
Mexico makes a mockery of America's own spectacularly unsuccessful
"war on drugs," it should go without saying that instability there has
repercussions here.

One major thing the United States could do to help the Mexican
government would be to ease the flow of guns into the hands of
cartels. Guns are largely illegal in Mexico - but cartels find it
simple to buy everything they need here (gun shows in Texas are a
favorite shopping spot) and drive across the border. Of course, gun
control of any kind is a hard sell in Texas, but that's where federal
intervention could help, especially if it's done under the rubric of
law enforcement. It's unlikely that President Bush will offer this
solution. Perhaps Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, among
others, can help press to fill the void.