U.S. CAN'T DUCK MEXICO'S PROBLEMS

As much as volatile states like Pakistan will remain a top-shelf issue
for President-elect Barack Obama, his new national security team must
equally put its shoulder into problems afflicting the United States'
southern border.

We suggest incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton begin her prep
work by reading U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza's recent speech
to the San Antonio-Mexico Friendship Council. He rightly explained
that Mexico's drug cartels wouldn't turn the nation into a killing
field "were the United States not the largest consumer of illicit
drugs and the main suppliers of weapons to the cartels."

Like it or not, corralling Mexico's violent drug cartels does include
a U.S. responsibility. Specifically, the new administration must drive
home the craziness of drug abuse in the U.S. and also do everything in
its power to stanch the flow of weapons into Mexico. A new U.S. report
shows that the starting point is Houston, a major way station for
cartel guns.

Mr. Obama can further stabilize Mexico by instructing his education
secretary to work with Mexico to improve its schools. The school
accountability movement has made its way there, and we have a vested
interest in similar reforms improving Mexican schools. Mexico can't
create the jobs the international economy wants and Mexico needs
to keep its people at home without a stronger education system.

Finally, there's the lack of Mexico's oil production, thanks to the
state-run oil industry's notorious inefficiencies. Mexico's economy
will suffer substantially if it indeed becomes a net oil importer, as
trends suggest. And the oil-importing U.S. obviously will suffer if
Mexico's supply shrinks.

Mr. Obama could strike an unexpected partnership with Mexican
President Felipe CalderA3n. They come from different political
persuasions, but both are thinkers in their middle 40s. Mr. CalderA3n
has about 24 months before his next presidential campaign begins; he
needs Washington for his legacy, and Washington needs him to fight the
cartels.

Mr. Obama must push Congress to fund the rest of the MA(c)rida
Initiative, which Capitol Hill passed to help Mexican law enforcement.
And that's only part of the puzzle of this complicated relationship,
which needs its own attention.