SHIFTING APPROACHES IN THE DRUG WAR

Protect the population while relying on better human intelligence:
Where have we heard this
before?

Some 16,000 people have been killed over the last four years in
violence among factions in Mexican drug cartels, but the murders this
month of two U.S. citizens in the border town of Juarez helped spur
the governments of Mexico and the United States to rethink the ways
they combat the problem.

When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert
Gates and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano met with their
counterparts Tuesday in Mexico City, they said they had agreed to
reshape the Merida Initiative launched by President George W. Bush to
combat drug violence. They decided to focus less on technology and
infrastructure -- such as border walls and helicopters -- and more on
supporting communities plagued with violence, disrupting trafficking
and increasing economic opportunities.

In other words, no longer would the governments rely on a strategy of
sending in the Mexican Army to clear neighborhoods and kick in doors.
Because that hasn't been working.

President Bush made a similar calculation in Iraq three years ago, and
President Barack Obama has done the same in Afghanistan. Each embraced
a counterinsurgency strategy that emphasized protecting the local
populations above heavy-handed military sweeps. Bush's conversion may
have salvaged what appeared to be a lost cause in Iraq; Obama hopes
for similar progress in Afghanistan.

While they share a generally gentler approach, the campaigns will be
distinguished by the kinds of evils arrayed against them. The United
States is much more a part of the problem in Latin America than in
Iraq or Afghanistan, as American drug demand fuels much of the shadow
economy that Latin druglords are killing people to control. The United
States bears a heavy responsibility for the bloodshed on its doorstep
and doesn't have the option of walking away from Mexico's efforts to
grapple with it. In addition to sending money and technical help to
Mexico, it is obligated to review the ways it intentionally or
unintentionally spurs demand for illegal drugs.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon, to his credit, has never shied away
from prosecuting the war over drugs, sending 45,000 Mexican troops
into some of the scariest neighborhoods in the hemisphere in an effort
to stem the killings and interrupt the flow of weaponry and narcotics.
But the Mexican populace has begun to sour on that approach, giving
the government unfavorable marks for its inability to turn the
criminal tide. The latest spree of killings -- lowlighted by the
execution in January of 15 teenagers attending a party in Juarez --
has led Calderon to broaden his crackdown beyond purely military efforts.

Now, as Mexican states develop law enforcement tools to help prosecute
drug crimes, both national governments acknowledge that they must
shape an alternative future for Mexicans who despair at the lack of
economic opportunity.

A shared border is always a shared responsibility, but the stakes on
this border have grown particularly high. It is welcome to see three
U.S. cabinet secretaries fly to Mexico City to help Calderon open a
new front in the battle for his country's securit