IN MEXICO'S DRUG WAR, THE ENEMY IS US

We're Also Major Source for Weapons Smuggled There

As the eyes of the world remain riveted on violent conflicts in the
Middle East, one of our closest international allies is under siege.

Mexico is embroiled in a widening war with our hemisphere's most
powerful drug cartels. That's the message Mexico's President Felipe
Calderon delivered during a visit to Washington this week.

More than 5,500 people were killed in 2008 in Mexico in the wake of
an unprecedented campaign to take down the kingpins who have been
operating criminal empires there with virtual impunity for years.

Tragically, Calderon's noble and resolute quest is a quixotic one. To
paraphrase an old saying, Mexico's closest ally in this pursuit, the
United States, also happens to be its worst enemy.

The growing power of Mexico's drug cartels is directly related to the
huge demand for drugs in the United States.

Our fellow Americans are the cartels' best customers and,
consequently, the financiers of the ongoing slaughter of law
enforcement personnel and innocent bystanders in Mexico.

The U.S. also is a major source of the increasingly powerful weaponry
being used by drug traffickers, who experts say have more powerful
and sophisticated weapons than the federal troops and police assigned
to combat them.

Ninety percent of guns Mexican officials confiscate are purchased at
U.S. stores and gun shows, then smuggled into Mexico.

Last month, outgoing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and
remaining Defense Secretary Robert Gates pledged that the U.S. will
redouble its efforts to supply money, training and equipment to help
Mexico "confront these criminals and protect our citizens" as part of
the Merida Initiative.

The initiative is the latest in a series of unsuccessful efforts to
stem the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S., and it is expected to
cost about $1.4 billion.

This week, President-elect Barack Obama announced that he supports the program.

Unfortunately, as with every other U.S.-backed international
anti-drug initiative that's come before it, the Merida Initiative is
doomed to fail.

Mexico's cartels are now the main suppliers of illegal drugs into the
U.S. That wasn't always the case. Our southern neighbor earned this
dubious distinction after the United States helped cripple the
powerful Colombia-based cartels of the 1980s and 1990s.

So even though we won some battles in Colombia, we're losing the war in Mexico.

The Merida Initiative will fail because the root cause of this crisis
is not international drug trafficking.

It is drug addiction and drug abuse in the United States, both
fundamentally public health issues.