WHAT A REAL DRUG WAR LOOKS LIKE

Over the border and through the cartels to Abuelita's casa we
go.

A scary new reality arrived with the long Christmas season in Mexico.
For generations, families have driven across the border from the U.S.
to spend much of December and into January visiting relatives.

This year, the Mexican government put out stark warnings to such merry
travelers. Travel in convoys, in daylight and if possible, contact
federal authorities for a military escort through the portions of
Mexico where the drug cartel violence has been particularly gruesome.

And most of us are worried about overly exuberant security agents
touching our junk as we travel for the holidays.

The U.S. is forever proclaiming its war on drugs. And if you live in
an urban community where police regularly stop folks in search of
those carrying contraband, you'd be justified to feel under siege.

But if you want to know what a real drug war is, behold Mexico. The
scale of the casualties (more then 28,000 in four years) and
disruption to daily life is difficult for most in the U.S. to grasp.
Mexico's version of our Health and Human Services secretary told the
Los Angeles Times he worried that his nation is on the cusp of
becoming one where "killing someone can be seen as normal or natural."

It's easy to cluck our tongues about the gruesome violence "over
there," but to do so is to absolve ourselves of the role our country
plays in this bloody import/export business. Let's be honest: this is
a trade relationship. Mexico supplies the drugs. We supply the users.

As with so many of our trade relationships, we've outsourced
production -- along with the violence that often comes with keeping the
products cheap. Thanks for the dope and the meth, Mexico, and good
luck with those nasty Zetas!

Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched his offensive against the
drug cartels four years ago this month, and they have responded by
turning the country into a shooting gallery. Now what?

Calderon has proposed nearly eliminating the country's system of local
police. Undertrained and underequipped, they are simply too
susceptible to bribes, and are a ready source of soldiers and
operatives for the cartels. The plan is to unify the police under
state control while nationally standardizing and professionalizing
their ranks.

It is a massive undertaking, but one that is necessary if Mexico is to
liberate itself from the past where cartels ran their trade and
controlled swaths of territory by staying in cahoots with elected and
other public officials.

Those were placid days by comparison. And increasingly, Mexicans are
growing weary of the violence. In a recent poll, 49 percent of
respondents said the military-style crackdown is a failure, compared
with 33 percent who believed it is successful. Criticism is rising as
more young people are being slaughtered execution style, sometimes in
retaliation for the military's strikes against the cartels.

But don't assume that Mexicans wish to hand their country back to the
old status quo. Some are bravely resisting.

The recent blazing death of a 77-year-old businessman is destined for
lore. Don Alejo Garza Tamez refused to surrender his ranch after
receiving an ultimatum from a drug lord. He told his employees to stay
away, barricaded himself in his home and waited. The drug lord's
henchmen came for him with grenades and heavy weaponry. He shot back
with hunting rifles, killing four and wounding two before dying
himself. Mexican Marines found the carnage.

There will always be drug buyers and sellers. This much you can bet
on: the U.S. drug market will insist on being served.

What can change is the drug cartels' influence on Mexico's law
enforcement, courts, elected officials and public safety. Those
changes are about military force, but more importantly about training,
prosecution of the corrupt, and decreasing poverty -- always the
handmaiden of crime. These lofty endeavors will take time. And
Calderon has two years left in office.

How can we Americans help? We can start by getting the semantics right
about the drug war. Mexico is fighting it; U.S. consumers are feeding
it.