MEXICO'S CARTELS SHOULD BE TREATED THE SAME AS TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS

Not far from the United States border to Mexico, another mass grave
was discovered only days ago.

Mass graves, beheadings, hangings, and bullets in the back of the head
or three to the chest executions are fairly commonplace among the drug
cartels littering Mexico.

These tactics are used to intimidate the people living in "drug towns"
- -- towns used for the smuggling of drugs, weapons and kidnappings back
and forth across the U.S. border -- into working for the cartels and to
establish territory between the rival cartels.

While most of the violence is staying on the Mexico side of the
border, the kidnappings and attacks on border patrols are increasing
on the U.S. side, and shootings are spilling over.

The so-called war on drugs the U.S. is floundering in is a topic of
much debate between liberals and conservatives nationwide. But less
often addressed are the battles with gangs in the U.S. moving the
narcotics supplied by the cartels in Mexico. The real war on drugs
rests with the attempts to stifle the violence of these cartels and
the shipment of the drugs into the U.S.

Unfortunately, the intelligence networks between the U.S. and Mexico
are not flowing smoothly, and the violence is only escalating as the
U.S. clamps down on the drug trade from the Caribbean, causing more
business for the Mexican cartels and even more violence for our
neighbors to the south.

The U.S. is busy with combat in Libya and Afghanistan, and while those
bloody events unfold, 34,612 people have been killed in the past four
years as of Jan. 12. From gang members to security forces to
bystanders, no one is safe from the violence of the cartels as they
vie for control of the $13 billion per year industry of trafficking
drugs from South America through Mexico and into the U.S.

And what can be done? The police in Mexico are generally corrupt, and
the army is being used to combat the cartels to little avail. The U.S.
can continue to fight drugs in our states, and might make headway into
eliminating some of the gangs currently distributing the drugs, but
that will not solve the problem. The U.S. efforts against drugs will
accomplish little so long as the cartels exist.

Legalizing drugs in the states will not happen any time soon -- sorry
folks. Mexico's president has admitted to considering the option of
legalization in Mexico as an effort to quell violence from the
cartels, which does little to stop the drugs from flowing into the
U.S.

So, where do we go from here? We are entrenched in other countries to
fight for freedom and end terror, while violence akin is running
rampant on our border. When do we stop arguing about what the war on
drugs is and start avidly working toward stopping the cartels and
assisting our neighbor country? The cartels are terrorists the same as
al-Qaida, and we need to be treating them as such.