WAGING BATTLE ON TWO IMPORTANT FRONTS

New wars and real wars don't stop old wars and deadly wars that are
smart enough to go underground. Now that the tragedy of Ground Zero
has captured the imagination of the American people, everyone is
champing at the bit to enlist in the war against terrorism, and the
war on drugs has slipped silently into a nonissue.

On a recent edition of the "News Hour," Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge
Castaneda spoke candidly about the effects of Sept. 11 on Mexico. As
in America, the financial aftershocks have resounded throughout the
Mexican economy. Castaneda candidly admitted that Mexico is in a full
blown recession.

This is not only bad news for Mexico, it's bad news for America, in
more ways than one. With a gross national product of $700 billion,
Mexico is an important trade partner of the United States. When money
and jobs stop flowing, it works both ways.

The difference is, Mexico has a lot more experience in dealing with a
shortage of funds at the grassroots level. The great hope of both
Mexico's and America's presidents was that an improved economy would
stem the drug trade that has seeped its corruption into so many
corners of Mexican life.

It is no secret that graft and corruption have a long-standing
foothold in Mexico. This issue was addressed head on when Vicente Fox
was elected president of Mexico last year. Foremost among his campaign
pledges was the solemn promise that he intended to wage an all out war
on corruption at every level.

But if Castaneda said anything about Mexico's ongoing battle against
corruption in his "News Hour" interview, I missed it. And I was
listening hard for it. I need the reassurance that it's still a top
priority. Because if it isn't, we're all in trouble.

If ever there was a time when we need to look reality squarely in the
eyes and deal with it, it is now. The experience of the poor in our
own country speaks for itself, if we are willing to listen. An
unbiased tour of American ghettos is convincing evidence that people
will do what they need to do to get by.

And all to often, what they do involves drugs. Why? Because drugs mean
money. Big money. The kind of money you can only fantasize about on
welfare or food stamps.

But even the poorest of America's poor are often far better off than
the poor in third world countries. Most of us have no idea how
desperate desperate people can get.

Some youngsters snicker at the frugal ways of their grandparents,
saving string and unbending nails to put back in the toolbox. But
those who lived through the dark days of the Depression are not about
to waste anything. They know better.

Mexico, on the other hand, has a long-standing history of poor people
eking out a living any way they can. Situated as they are, directly at
the end of the corridor between South America and the United States,
they are the last link in the chain of drug traffic that flows across
the border.

An awful lot of people in Mexico stand to make a lot of money by sheer
virtue of their geography. Who can blame them if they do just that if
the promise of jobs and trade and economic growth slow to a stop in
their own country? They are not going to let their children starve.

Meanwhile, America's president and Mexico's president are on a first
name basis. They are friends. In fact, America came dangerously close
to passing a law that would have relaxed inspection standards for
Mexican trucks crossing the border from Mexico, just days before Sept.
11 changed the course of everyone's lives, including nations.

In the same "News Hour" interview, Foreign Minister Castaneda also
said that economic growth in Mexico for 2001 stalled at zero percent,
worse than anyone had expected, even in light of Sept. 11.

Castaneda went on to say that it is his hope that we (the United
States) will "not do too many things on the security side that make
movement of goods less expeditious. At the same time, we don't want to
interfere with security or jeopardize it."

The lowered inspection standards would have imposed stricter standards
on our own American truckers than on Mexican truckers, an unfair, and
in light of Sept. 11, dangerous advantage. Illegal immigration and
drug running have not magically disappeared in a wave of good will
just because America has been attacked.

President Bush has exhibited remarkable courage and fortitude in
standing his ground when others would have given in on the many hard
issues he has had to face since the September day that changed the
world for all of us. He has rightly refused to submit to political
demands that are not in America's best interests.

It is true that our relationship with Mexico is now at a critical
juncture. Mexican workers, like their American counterparts, are
hurting. They need jobs just as we do. But now is not the moment to
relax our standards of security because a friendly neighbor has asked
us to.

For the next two years, Mexico will be a member of the United Nations
Security Council. Buying Mexico's friendship at the expense of our own
national security will accomplish only one thing: It will convince
them that politics really is only a word game after all.

With a whole generation of American youth on the line, we cannot
afford to send anyone in the world that message. Least of all, our
next door neighbor.