OBAMA MUSTN'T NEGLECT MEXICO

The Drug War Is a Threat to U.S. Security. It's Time for a Full-Court Press.

SAN DIEGO - Many Americans see Mexico as a dysfunctional family in
the neighborhood. With the start of a new year, and a new Congress,
President Obama needs to persuade the American people to see Mexico
in a different light - as one of the most explosive countries in the
region capable of creating a major foreign policy crisis for the U.S.
There's no better time to start than with Obama's upcoming State of
the Union address.

Thanks to Mexico's narco nightmare, our backyard is on fire.
According to figures recently released by Mexican Attorney General
Arturo Chavez, the number of deaths in drug-related violence since
President Felipe Calderon took office four years ago has surpassed 30,000.

You can chalk up a few of those killings to a notorious drug cartel
hit man who has admitted to beheading his victims - even though he
isn't old enough to shave. A few weeks ago, the Mexican army captured
the pint-sized Edgar Jimenez Lugo, aka "El Ponchis." In a country
where men are lucky to make $6 a day in honest wages, the 14-year-old
was paid $200 a week by a cartel. El Ponchis has been what the
Mexican news media are calling a "child assassin" since he was 11.
And authorities say El Ponchis is one of ours, born in San Diego.

Some say the chaos proves that Calderon has the cartels on the run.
Recently, Mexican authorities announced that the once-feared La
Familia drug cartel, which has long dominated the western state of
Michoacan, has been "completely dismembered" and that its factions
have been reduced to committing robberies to survive.

Just don't try telling the people of Mexico that the government is
winning the war. Many are looking for an exit - or a truce. Several
months ago, the staff of El Diario de Juarez, the largest newspaper
in Ciudad Juarez, gave into their fear of becoming cannon fodder. So
the newspaper published an editorial asking the drug cartels to
"explain what you want from us, what we should try to publish or not publish."

Most Americans have a limited perspective on Mexico's crisis. They
only worry about the potential for spillover violence. They want
Mexico to stay in Mexico.

Too late. Mexico is already here.

According to U.S. officials, Mexican drug cartels operate in more
than a dozen states. They're suspected of being involved in
kidnappings, robberies and murders on U.S. soil. If Mexico spirals
out of control and cartels continue to take over whole cities, as
they did recently in Monterrey, the damage won't be limited to Mexico
or to states along the border. It will be a full-blown international
crisis that impacts the lives of all Americans.

It's time that the Obama administration stopped ignoring the fire,
grabbed a hose and helped put out the flames. Our neighbors have had
enough of those photo-ops where visiting U.S. officials offer lofty
rhetoric about how Mexico and the U.S. are "partners" in this
conflict. The Mexicans don't need a silent partner. They need an
active collaborator who is motivated not by charity but by an honest
recognition of its own self-interest.

On this side of the border, President Obama must:

. Deploy the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border, not to combat
illegal immigration as George W. Bush did but to help secure the area
and ward off drug violence.

. Reboot and refocus the stale war on drugs with a new emphasis on
curbing Americans' consumption that includes instructing the Justice
Department to push for stiffer penalties for casual users of
marijuana, cocaine and other illegal drugs.

. Reverse a dangerous and wrongheaded administration policy, recently
detailed by The Washington Post, of not requiring gun dealers on the
border to report bulk sales of high-powered semiautomatic rifles -
the guns of choice for drug dealers.

. Start discussing the drug war in Mexico, with the American people,
as a potential national security threat. What's going on in Mexico is
not just limited to Mexico. Already, the Mexican drug cartels are
spreading their operations and power into neighboring countries, such
as Guatemala, Peru and Colombia.

With regard to Mexico, Obama should:

. Provide additional U.S. military advisers to train the Mexican army
in counterinsurgency tactics and the taking down of drug lords.

. Ride herd on the $1.6 billion over three years that Congress
provided to the Mexican government in the Merida Initiative but which
has been slow to arrive, and make sure every dime gets to Mexico
where it can be used to fight the cartels.

. Be prepared to hand over whatever other kind of support Calderon
requires to quash the insurgency, including U.S. troops if necessary.

. Dole out some tough love to our neighbors by making the case to
Mexican officials - whether they want to hear it or not - that their
situation does indeed compare with Colombia 20 years ago but that
they can learn valuable lessons from it.

U.S. leaders have been much too timid in dealing with this crisis.
That has to stop. After all, Americans are subsidizing this war. We
buy the drugs that keep the cartels in business, and we provide the
guns that keep the drug traffickers armed to the teeth. This is our
baby, and it's time we owned up to it.