MEXICO, DRUGS AND MURDER

One of the most underreported ongoing stories around is the war in
Mexico between the government and the drug cartels. Here are the
grisly stats: More than 28,000 people have been killed in drug-related
violence since 1996. In Iraq, 4,421 Americans have been killed. In
Afghanistan, 1,141.

The truth is that Mexican drug merchants are even more deadly than
al-Qaida. They have more firepower and more money and are just as
willing to kill civilians as are the homicidal jihadists. Yet, we
Americans know little about the chaotic situation south of the border.

The reason is that the drug cartels don't seem to threaten us
directly. But, of course, they do. Illegal narcotics from Mexico wind
up in almost every community in the United States. The FBI estimates
that about 70 percent of crimes from coast to coast are
drug-fueled.

The latest atrocity in the Mexican drug war was the discovery of 72
bodies on a ranch 100 miles south of Texas. The dead -- 58 men and 14
women -- were migrants from South and Central America. The lone
survivor of the massacre says that cartel gunmen shot the unarmed
folks because they resisted an extortion attempt.

The reliably anti-American New York Times partially blamed the mass
killings on the USA: "Mexico's drug cartels are nourished from
outside, by American cash, heavy weapons and addiction; the northward
pull of immigrants is fueled by our demand for low-wage labor."

I had to read that editorial three times to believe it. Here we have
the Times, which opposes putting the National Guard on the border, the
tough anti-alien law in Arizona and most other measures that might
secure the border, complaining about the illegal gun and drug traffic.
Can you believe this? Hey, you pinheads, if the United States would
send ten thousand National Guardspeople to help the border patrol,
drugs and guns would not be able to cross the border so easily. Comprende?

This entire grisly charade is infuriating. This country has the power
to stop the smuggling of human beings and drugs across the southern
border. We could do that. But, for political reasons, we don't.
Meanwhile, the drug cartels kill at will and create terror on a scale
not seen anywhere else on earth at this time.

Mexico, itself, is at fault because it won't ask for American help.
Apparently, they think 28,000 dead is acceptable.

Well, it's not. U.S. law enforcement and troops should be assisting
Mexican authorities in the destruction of the cartels. The fact that
these drug animals have been able to operate their murderous industry
so openly for so long is beyond shameful.

Manuel Noriega turned his country, Panama, into a narco-state, and in
1989, the elder President Bush sent U.S. forces in to remove him.
President Obama might study that campaign. Something needs to be done
in Mexico.