MEXICAN VIOLENCE MERITS ATTENTION

The year was 1915, and a Mexican revolutionary named Doroteo Arango,
aka Francisco "Pancho" Villa, was launching raids along the
Mexico-U.S. border, killing Americans in the hopes of drawing the
U.S. into a larger confrontation with Mexico.

In response, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson ordered the deployment of
troops to Texas and New Mexico to guard the border. Brigadier Gen.
John J. Pershing was sent to Fort Bliss to guard the border from
Arizona to just southeast of El Paso.

But in January 1916, Villa's bandits stopped a train in Santa Ysabel
and executed 16 Texas businessmen. When news of the massacre reached
El Paso, its residents were so livid that martial law was enacted so
as to prevent a vengeful incursion into Ciudad Juarez.

In the end, Villa's wanton raids and killings forced the U.S. to
order the Punitive Expedition in which Pershing pursued Villa
throughout Mexico. Pershing never captured Villa, but the
revolutionary bandit did eventually die by the bullet, or rather
hundreds of them that were fired into his car in 1923.

Flash forward to 2008, and though there are no bandits raiding U.S.
towns, the border between Mexico and the U.S. -- particularly between
El Paso and Juarez -- is again a bloody one.

Across Mexico, more than 5,300 people have died in gangland-style
killings in 2008 -- more than double the number last year, according
to government figures. In Juarez, more than 1,300 people have been
killed in the city of 1.3 million this year.

The latest casualties in a war between drug lords and civil and
military authorities include a senior police commander in Juarez,
whose bullet-riddled body was discovered Wednesday, and the
decapitated bodies of soldiers found last week in Chilpancingo, an
hour north of the resort of Acapulco in southern Mexico.

The situation in Mexico borders on anarchy, and again though the
violence has not yet spilled across the border, the U.S. -- and the
military -- needs to pay greater attention.

The massacres already are having a chilling effect on a number of
legal emigrants from Mexico who now are fearful about crossing the
border -- as is the tradition during the holidays -- to bring to
their families gifts and money acquired in the U.S.

According to the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, the
United States exports $129 billion worth of goods to Mexico and
imports more than $186 billion. Much is on the line -- economically,
humanitarian and security-wise.

In 1916, the United States was compelled to send reinforcements to
the border in order to protect its interests, but today, in the
middle of two foreign wars, reinforcements are in short order and our
attention is directed elsewhere. Regardless, more needs to be done to
shore up our border and to assist Mexico (and weigh on it) in
crushing this new rebellion.

We already have seen -- in 2001 -- the importance of controlling who
comes into our country, and when the legal authorities are under
siege within eye shot of our towns and people, the border is not secure.

An incursion into Mexico -- as was ordered in 1916 -- is not
currently justified, but we must ensure we are not caught off-guard
if and when the situation directly impacts our citizens.

And securing us from such a scenario is going to require more than
just a border fence -- it's going to require people manning that
fence and paying attention to an unfurling crisis that impacts us all.