FIGHTING DRUG CARTELS: U.S., MEXICO OFFICIAL ALLIES

Finally, there's a real plan to counter Mexican drug cartels. It's
countries fighting as a team.

Pentagon officials announced Tuesday that the U.S. is willing to
provide $1.5 billion, while Mexico's portion of the package will be $7
billion. The U.S. will provide equipment, such as helicopters and
technology, and Mexican President Felipe Calderon would continue to
provide the manpower via his military forces.

It's been clear for a long time that Mexican drug cartels are wreaking
devastation in both countries.

In Mexico, where drugs are produced, and through which Central and
South American drugs flow, there have been 2,000 execution-style
murders this year alone.

And U.S. officials estimate about 90 percent of the cocaine used in
this country is smuggled through the Mexican border. Then the billions
of dollars the drug cartels generate via sales goes back to Mexico via
the U.S. border.

Calderon has been waging a physical war with the cartels all year. He
has deployed his army to root out drug lords, plus his forces have
physically burned poppy and marijuana fields. He has stationed high
military presences in lawless areas, such as the drug-war infested
Nuevo Laredo, which is just across the border from Laredo, Texas.

But it wasn't working, at least not quickly.

In March, Calderon pitched this "team" idea to President Bush. Until
Tuesday, details had not been disclosed.

Tuesday. Stephen Johnson, a deputy assistant secretary for the Western
Hemisphere at the Advertisement Click Here! Department of Defense,
called the agreement a "regional security cooperation
partnership."

The added strength, via the modern equipment we can supply Mexico,
could result in enough power to finally control the running-wild drug
cartels, whose activities are ruining lives and causing rises in crime
rates in both countries.

The U.S. made the right decision to join Mexico in the war on drugs.