MEXICO VIOLENCE CALLS FOR NEW TACTICS

Ciudad Juarez is at war. From the lips of Richard Nixon in 1971, the
U.S. War on Drugs has transcended metaphor and emerged on our
doorstep as a too-real war. Like Afghanistan and Iraq, it is a war
with guns, soldiers, tanks and unrelenting death.

With the world watching, 15,000 people have died in Mexico over the
past three years in a multi-faceted war between drug cartels and the
Mexican army. In Ciudad Juarez alone, drug violence has killed nearly
3,800 people in two years.

When we do the numbers, the death toll in Mexico equals five 9/11 attacks.

In fact, just like the war that came from that attack, this drug war
is "a different kind of war" -- in this case, not a war of nations or
ideology, but a private-sector war fueled by an insatiable hunger for profit.

To achieve a sustainable peace, Ciudad Juarez must have a
deliberative, comprehensive strategy short-term and long-term. And in
this different kind of war, we will need a different set of
solutions: international peacekeeping; commitment to a rule of law;
and U.S. drug regulation.

Foremost, the urgent need in Juarez is security. The small-time
mordida we are familiar with -- a few dollars for speeding or running
a stop sign -- takes an insidious hue as systemic corruption
paralyzes Mexico from governing itself; and as corruption empowers violence.

Juarez business leaders took an important step this month when they
petitioned the United Nations to bring peacekeepers to the border
region. This enemy has no nation and no borders; Mexico cannot do it alone.

The U.N. can bring to Juarez civilian and military peacekeeping,
humanitarian assistance, ceasefire agreements and the establishment
of peace zones.

Both Mexico and the United States are members of the U.N. Security
Council, the small body that controls peacekeeping operations. It is
dumbfounding to imagine that the Council might be uninterested in
bringing security to the border of two of its own 15 member states.
The U.N. has a record of thinking outside the box in Bosnia and
Haiti. They can do it in Juarez, too -- if the political will exists.

Yet peacekeeping is not a permanent solution; it is a mere stopgap
measure to allow for long-term solutions. Mexico must look forward to
establishing a rule of law and to providing the funding to fuel it.
The two go hand-in-hand.

For those of us who dream of a world with few taxes and less
services, we need look no further than Mexico for the harsh reality.

In the long run, Juarez must gain the authority to tax locally and
raise the revenue needed to invest in local infrastructure, physical
and social; and to fund the professional law enforcement and judicial
system needed for social stability.

On our side of the border, we must face our own hunger for illicit
and pharmaceutical drugs. This market-driven war demands a market
solution. This means a U.S. drug policy that promotes stability
through market regulation, not anarchy through blind prohibition.

And in El Paso, with its strong military and law enforcement, we must
encourage more participation from the State Department. Diplomacy and
aid must be part of the solution.

The human impact of the violence dictates that we do more for peace.
After 9/11, New York Magazine estimated that 422,000 suffered from
post-traumatic stress disorder. If this drug war equals five 9/11
attacks, rough math indicates 2.1 million people may be traumatically
impacted in Mexico. That is the kind of number that alters a generation.

The continuing violence at our doorstep is an admission that we are
powerless against it. That admission is unacceptable.