Don’t Call Mexico a ‘Failed State’
Those comments echoed what I heard in a recent interview with Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States. When asked if Mexico was a failed state, he bristled.
“It’s a shoe that does not fit,” Sarukhan said. “If you look at Mexico and you look at any criteria of indicators of what a failed state is and isn’t, Mexico is simply nowhere close to that, whether it’s control of its territory, whether its international recognition, the ability to fulfill its international commitment, print currency, raise taxes, there are no massive population migrations within Mexico. There’s a functioning civil society. There’s a functioning press. … In fact I would form the argument that, because the state is strong, it has had the ability to do what no previous Mexican president has done in the past, which was take the fight to the heart of the drug syndicates.”
One reason for the indignation of Mexican officials is that Americans are, you could say, financing the crisis by consuming enormous quantities of drugs. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy and other sources, about 90 percent of the cocaine entering the United States comes from Mexico, and our neighbor is also the source for much of the heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine consumed in the United States. Americans are also financing the crisis by providing — for a profit — most of the guns that are used to kill soldiers, police officers, and innocent civilians; according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, an estimated 90 percent of the weapons seized in Mexico are from sources in the United States.
So whose failure is this really? Americans and Mexicans share the drugs, the money, and the guns. Why not share the blame?
Let me tell you one thing about racist corrupt mexicans. Nothing makes their blood boil faster than having to endure FACTS being said out loud from the United States — especially when it concerns a problem that their neighbor helped create.
Fixed that opening line for you… also I do love this line…
“If you look at Mexico and you look at any criteria of indicators of what a failed state is and isn’t, Mexico is simply nowhere close to that, there are no massive population migrations within Mexico.<—– yeah you know having close to 1/3 of your citizens living in another country isn’t a “massive population migration”.
I going to love slapping you around completely because it just so easy… but first rack time.
As for the lies the BATF spews see this http://www.gunnewsdaily.com/rw807.html
“The cartels aren’t arming themselves from U.S. gun stores with semi-auto AR15 and AK47 rifles. They’ve moved on up. Not to completely dismiss arms moving into Mexico from the U.S., but it is not as it seems when the U.S. media tells the story. The firearms moving across the border are semi-auto rifles and handguns sold to middle class or wealthy Mexicans seeking personal protection from criminals that have no connections in Mexico with gun runners. For the most part the wealthy in Mexico are targets of criminal elements, so they have no intention of connecting up with them to buy a self-defense firearm. You’re better off buying a weapon from someone within the Mexican government than buying it from the criminal element, namely a drug cartel.”
How do you say yadda-yadda-yadda in Spanish? We’re spending huge coin building the new Hadrian’s wall on our border with Mexico. Why? To keep out their flow of refugees who are coming here to find work that they can’t find in Mexico.
The drugs aren’t flowing southward, but northward. Maybe the guns are built here, but who is bringing them to Mexico. I’m guessing Mexicans. Why is all this crime possible in Mexico? I’m guessing it’s the same reason their economy is broken: integral corruption.
Haven’t lost control of any territtory, huh? How about the two States bordering the U.S., where they’ve sent 10k troops and 5k federales. They’re getting their butts kicked; taking casualties at Anbar rates. They’re losing, and I’d wager a lot of that is due to corruption as well.
Fact is, they’ve made no real effort to coordinate with us in controlling the border. It’s all on us. As usual. If they don’t like what we say, they could ask for help. I’m sure we could put together a unit or two of spanish-speaking guys to help out, maybe helping to enforce a curfew. What curfew? Oh. Okay.
Interesting point. I’d be more sympathetic to this point of view if the Mexican government was interested in helping stop the flow of contraband (human and otherwise) across the border. Perhaps it’s ignorance on my part, but I am aware of no such willingness.
I saw the 60 Minutes hit piece, produced in the inimitable trademark fashion of the entrenched media…outlining a problem and then framing in a way to hoist blame upon the U.S. AND…one of the other pet leftist attacking points.
In this intance, gun ownership was the “add on” piece in the leftist blamefest against America for the world’s problems.
Here are the facts on the ground. Mexico has an extremely serious and dangerous problem with organized crime. There are five “families” or cartels that constitute the vast majority of anti-establishment rebellion at the moment, battling against the government of Mexico.
Similar in some ways to the five families that constituted the Cosa Nostra, these cartels deal in the high income traffic of illegal goods. NOT similar to the American Mafia, these cartels are into civilian terrorism, kidnapping for profit, and open confrontational warfare against the government.
They grow, produce, manufacture and distribute marijuana and cocaine in vast quantities, producing enormous sums of wealth and they operate in open definance…generating an array of violent acts against the military, the government, the police and prosecutors.
They utilize a network of members of their “secret” society…who have crossed the border here…and because some of them are hidden out without documentation, can operate almost undetected within our borders. This allows for the transfer of cash and guns to make its way back and forth without detection.
How are we to “blame” for another country’s cartels? We don’t “stop” the flow of guns and money across the border back and forth…so we are “responsible” for “promoting” and “advancing” the cause of the cartels.
Neat trick. If we target the “secret society” we are racists. If we don’t target the “secret society” we are to blame for the crime they produce and encourage. And, heck…while we’re at it…why not “share” the blame for the vast corruption within law enforcement of other countries as well?
I don’t know what constitutes a “failed state”. And I certainly am in no position to call anybody, anything…of a negative connotation. But if we are not pulling on the same end of the rope, then everyone can argue how to parcel out all the blame they want…as civilians get kidnapped, tourists get robbed and murdered and the secret society here grows to proportions completely out of control.
When people begin to argue that “secret societies” are ok and pose no dangers…it rings a bit hollow when they say…”but not here at home”. Breaking SOMEONE ELSE’S laws is perfectly ok with us…but breaking OUR laws is not ok. When our citizens break YOUR laws, we don’t care…it’s your problem. But if your people HELP to break our laws…you must “share the blame”.
These problems are either bilateral or they are not. We are either pulling on the same end of the rope…or we are not. Either we care about law enforcement or we don’t. But doing this blame-shifting dance is not productive. And failing to speak plainly about one’s OWN contributions to the problem…simply is an avoidance mechanism of a difficult issue to discuss. Eric Holder said we are all cowards. I am believing more and more each day he is absolutely correct. And, if anything can produce a “failed state”…it’s the lack of courage to identify and then discuss where the real problems stem from…and the need to create fake and phony scapegoats who more neatly fit into the stereotypical “root cause” of all our problems.
If you affix problems only to stereotyped, fake and phony “scapegoats” you are going to get “solutions” that “solve” phony issues, but don’t address real ones. That may salve the leftist’s needs…but it won’t cure what ails us. It will exacerbate it. And that, in the end…makes a “failed state” of all of us.
Have you ever noticed that all it takes for US voters and politicians to be asked to compromise is for them to be told what our opponent wants or why they want it? We must compromise with China because China values saving face, nobody else on earth wants to avoid embarrassment I suppose. Mexico is corrupt from the start and from top to bottom in things large and small, but we must pretend that isn’t a character flaw, no it’s tradition.
Mexico is failing and nobody in Mexico is willing to make the hard choices to save their country. They’ll make some of the difficult choices, water those down, tip off the key people and then expect the Gringos to bail them out. If Mexicans won’t fight for their country like it’s a life or death struggle, we’re better off knowing that sooner. Seal their borders and force them to kill the trouble-makers, create jobs, and stop accepting corruption as normal. Nah! They’ll just shoot for a while, then bribe for a while, and then beg for a while, all the while blaming Americans for all of it. “An excuse is better than an accomplishment.”
is this guy for real?
Mexico is a failed state. It doesn’t become a working state by not mentioning its failure. Grow up, Ruben. Tell your friends in Mexico the same thing.
Would they prefer to be called a failed country?
I grew up near the Mexican border. An old family friend is the Sheriff of a major border county. My brother is a supervisor-level state police officer in the same county. Ranching and farming families I know endure smuggling traffic across their land. Until recently I taught high school in a major southwestern city, and over the years had several Mexican students endure family vigils for kidnapped relatives (fortunately no deaths).
All in all, I think I can speak to this issue with some perspective. While I will agree that comparing Mexico to Pakistan is an insult, things certainly aren’t looking good for our friends south of the border. Just because things are as bad as they are in Kashmir or the Swat valley doesn’t mean they aren’t headed in the same direction. If its government can’t get things under control, the issue of whether or not Mexico is a “failed state” will mostly be just a matter of what verb tense you use.
Fail, failing, failed.
I might add to the above a few salient facts;
1. The idea that Mexican drug cartels are being armed by American firearms dealers falls down on one basic fact; the drug runners predominantly use full-automatic weapons, specifically AK-type assault rifles. These are easily and cheaply available worldwide… everywhere except the United States, where they just happen to be illegal without special licensing. As for their use of U.S. type AR-15/M-16 type arms (which I have seen in recent news footage from Mexico), since the ones shown in use were also full-auto weapons, the only way they could have come from the U.S. is if they came from U.S. government stockpiles. Of course, there are several other countries which make the AR-15 under license from the U.S. government, where such arms could easily be obtained for the right amount of money.
There is also one country where AK-type rifles, AR-15 type rifles,and assorted other small arms are manufactured, which has a well-deserved reputation for arming any group with a cause, a grudge, and/or hard cash. And just by coincidence, it’s also noted as a source of various drugs, notably heroin, the latest fave-rave of the narcotraficantes’. Namely, the People’s Republic of China.
2. to say that “Mexico was peaceful” before it’s violence somehow became all our fault ignores the country’s long history of civil war, ethnic dvision, class warfare, aggression toward its neighbors (we fought two wars with Mexico in the 19th Century alone), and the fact that it maintains a rigid caste system, inherited from the Spanish conquistadors and their successors, the French under Napoleon III and his protege’, Emperor Maximilian, that managed to survive the reforms of Benito Juarez’. The ruling classes in Mexico since then have never had any reason to reform the nation’s stratified culture and society… because they have always had their large neighbor to the north (the U.S.) as a safety valve for societal elements thay didn’t want to cope with themselves.
Mexico- or “progressive intellectuals” here in the U.S.- blaming this country for Mexico’s problems is rather like the drug addict who blames “society” for his inability to cope with reality without getting stoned.
And I find it fascinating to note, in this context, that those who demand that we abolish civilian gun ownership in the U.S. to “save Mexico”, in the very next breath, demand we legalize drugs to accomplish the same end. Which reminds me of a line fom the old novelty song “Deteriorata”- “Always remember that two wrongs don’t make a right.. but that three do.”
clear ether
eon
If the Mexican government is concerned that our border security is letting guns pass through to Mexico, they should use their own border security personnel to intercept those guns on their side of the border. After all, travelling one foot into Mexico doesn’t give the smuggler any time to dispose of the illegal cargo. C’mon, Mexicans, show us how it’s done!!
I wonder what would happen if the US legalized drugs then regulated and taxed them just like alcohol and tobacco? The failed war on drugs is the main cause of this problem and many others.
I believe the Founding Fathers would think it absurd to let the government tell a free citizen what substances he could and could not put into his own body.
I agree that the solution in the long run is the legalization of drugs. I have lived in central Mexico for the past six years. Calderon’s war that burst open a sore that lay quietly festering for decades.
It is true that the Mexican people do not have the stomach to do what it would really take to shut down the cartels violently. The beheadings and the kidnapping of civilians state loud and clear “the government cannot protect you” and the war is in their homes.
In the last few weeks, there has been more political murmuring about legalization here. Woe to the US if Mexicans decide that they’d rather accomodate the cartels than the US to that degree.
The Mexican state is not in danger of failing like Pakistan is. In Pakistan, the Taliban’s objectives are political. The cartels’ objectives are “business” and money. The ruling class’s objective is to keep the status quo. A deal will be made between the two groups.
It’s alllllllllllllllllllll America’s fault. It always is, isn’t it? Those drug dealing bribing murdering criminal Mexicans- America made them do it.
Have you checked in with their parents?
Not only is mexico a failed state it is a failed culture. Just as Ruben Navarrette Jr is a failed jounalist.
Rubin , Mexico is a failed state and you are a failed American. Why is it you still live in this country? My blood boils when I read articles from La Raza , MEChA loving Mexicans like you. You embrace these subversive organizations and their hatred of gringos and America. You are on par with the Muslims who perpetrated 9-11. Take a hike back across the border.
American Christian Infidel
Michael Canzano
Anyone who thinks that things would get a loss worse if we legalized drugs is naive. If you think that drugs aren’t already available to any kid with cash who can look around him or her in school, you’re even more naive. On all fronts, the war on drugs has failed. It’s time to start being realistic and kick the drug warriors to the curb. They haven’t done a damn thing to make things better, have taken away an incredible amount of liberty through the laws they needed to fight drug use like civil asset forfeiture laws, and they boast that increased violence means they’re winning.
Your average drug warrior is cut from the same amoral, sociopathic cloth as the people working for these cartels.
#13
People tend to view legalization here in the US as a cure-all. I think you actually increase the likelihood of cartel-borne crime here. Especially, if the supply chain for the newly legal controlled substances is domesticated (grown by licensed farmers in Kentucky and California, for example) and/or changed out to a “friendlier” group of nations. In the short term, I could see sabotaged operations and bitter ex-cartel types wreaking havoc. If you went from making cardiologist money to making home-health care nurse money with one stroke of the pen, you’d be pissed too.
From the US point of view, I would not be above some 1986 Gaddafi-type air strikes at each of the 4/5 cartel’s HQs.
16. Fantom:
Not only is mexico a failed state it is a failed culture. Just as Ruben Navarrette Jr is a failed jounalist.
Mar 4, 2009 – 6:46 am
Exactly!
A country that finds its police assassinated and beheaded is certainly on the way to failure.
I wish Mexico and its people well, but you can’t say all its problems are the result of drug use in the United States, yet there is nothing it can do domestically to provide opportunities for the Mexican people. Well, unless you’re Reuben.
Well, doing the same things and expecting different results is insanity. Drug war, reading Reuben, commenting on what he writes, it makes no difference. Nothing changes, but I told you so is cathartic.
Who was it who said that “the man who kicks in a rotten door gains an unearned reputation for violence.” Mexico’s cultural penchant for authoritarianism and corruption have made destabilization of Mexico an on-going concern for the cartels. Navarrette has a blind spot, a product of his own “native” pride. He simply cannot bring himself to believe that as individuals, city councils, governorships, and as a nation, Mexicans are somehow responsible for their own shabby existence.
Rubin Navarette is a shill for the Mexican government. His editorials pop up a lot in southern california papers, when it looks as if sympathy for illegal immigrants is flagging, and we evil American taxpayers need to be guilt-tripped into paying our tax dollars to support Mexican citizens who should be supported by their own government.
Yes, Americans need to kick their collective drug habit—but nobody forced Mexico to feed their habit. Nobody forced the Mexican government to be corrupt, to send their livlier, potentially dissident citizens to the US, to perpetuate a failed government model in which a few wealthy families have everything, and everybody else nothing. They did that all on their own.
Not only is Mexico a failed state, they’re trying to import their failure to us! http://uk.reuters.com/article/usTopNews/idUKTRE5230UX20090304?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
If it looks like a failed state, and acts like a failed state, and quacks like a failed state, we call it a . . . http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-03-03-voa53.cfm
Here’s another delightful Mexican import. The American pedophiles are contemptible, but why are Mexicans so eagerly selling their kids to them? Why don’t they kick them out, and stop the sex trade? http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/147572.php
And here’s Mr. Navarette blaming Mexico’s problems on the uppity American worker: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389×134143
Quoting: ‘[Calderon's] administration has not “lost any part — any single part — of the Mexican territory” to drug traffickers.’
I suppose this statement could be considered honest and true, as their is very little difference between the Cartels and the Mexican Government.
Let’s face it, at this point the cartels ARE the Mexican government.
Mexico—a failed culture: http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Mexico.htm
This article is excellent. The writer has a clear understanding of the dynamics involved in the Mexican drug war. Mexico is not a failed state but the drug violence is disturbing. Especially how it affects the border towns and the families on both sides of the border.
“Mexican officials go loco …”
How does one tell, specifically, when a Mexican official is in a state of loco-ness, as compared to their normal day-to-day state of blaming every single bad thing in their existance on America?
We need to curtail our BUYING of the drugs. There’s too much money being spent on the supply side of the equation and not enough on the demand. We’ll never stop it at the supply side.
Or just legalize the stuff and the crime will go away. There’s a definite parallel with Prohibition here.
TalkinKamel:
No one’s forcing Americans to hire illegals either.
Before it exported drugs,Mexico was content to export its people to be viciously exploited in Gringo Sweatshops.It’s controlled by a vicious kleptocracy of corrupt thugs who have been oppressing the majority of mexicans since the days of the conquistadors.Mexico has had dozens of corrupt governments,culminating in the farce of the democracy known as the PRI which created apermanent one party state which ordered tanks to fire on students in the the 1968 riots,and which has provided ideological cover for appalling social and economic inequalities. Navarette’s whining about the big bad American’s insulting the delicate sensitivities of Mexicans, remind me of Al Sharpton, screaming racisam and slavery to shift the blame for the American Black communities self-destructive tendencies.The current morphing of Mexico into a third world narco state,is just another evolution of Mexico’s failed society and government.To blame this on the US, is typical of Navarrette’s evasions;the clown is PJMs token latino,and apologist for the Mexican plutocracy.Mexico’s problems are self caused, and only the Mexican people can solve them.
And no one’s forcing Mexico to send its hard-working citizenry across the border, either.
Mexico possesses a lot of natural resources, and a hard working population, willing to struggle for a better life. There’s no excuse for it to be exporting drugs and its own people as its main source of income. If they found ways to keep their populace home, reined in the violence and cooperated with the US on patrolling the border, crooked American employers wouldn’t be able to exploit illegals the way they do.
Oh, and whenever somebody suggests that Americans do stop consuming drugs, they’re usually mocked as some ChristianistaRedneckKilljoy, trying to force their morality on others, and stop all fun. Or they’re accused of being heartless and unfeeling towards drug addicts—overly judgmental, and not understanding enough of said addicts’ problems.
Also, the major problem with illegal drugs will not be solved by legalizing them. That being, that a hardcore drug addict will not become a productive,law-abiding citizen just because they can now get their drug of choice at the equivalent of a state liquor store.
Mind-altering drugs, of any kind, reduce the user’s ability to function in society. Period. Dot. Ending Prohibition did not miraculously cure the ravaging effects of alcohol on its users- as Alcoholics Anonymous will tell you, the only cure is to stop drinking. And hope you haven’t dissolved too many brain cells before you stopped.
If drugs like heroin, cocaine, etc., or even that “harmless” marijuana (which, after decades of selective breeding, has about 70% tetrahydracannibinol per leaf, as opposed to the 10-15% content of the original stuff that the hip types smoked in Greenwich Village in the Sixties), the problem will be that the users will still be a crime problem- because since they won’t be able to hold down a job any more than they can now, they’ll still be committing crimes to get the money they need to get the drugs they need to stay high, or stoned, or whatever. All legalization will do is make it easier for them to score a load of their favorite method of brain-frying.
Their attempts to do actual, legitimate work to pay for same will end in failure then for the same reason they can’t do it now- getting high is more important to them than anything else. And try as they might, they will not be able “operate the controls as though they’re straight” like the two dopers in the big spaceship in the movie “Heavy Metal”. Real life doesn’t work that way.
Drug testing, you say? Good idea. And a virtual guarantee that our newly-emancipated dopers won’t be working nine-to-five. Unless of course those who demand legalization also demand that drug testing end, on the grounds that it would be “discriminatory”. Which means that the dopers would be free to try to function at jobs. Until they can’t. At which point somebody else is just about guaranteed to suffer the consequences.
Here’s a little thought experiment for you. Which would make you more concerned; going to the ER after a bad auto crash, and realizing that the orderly who is in charge of you until you can get into a trauma room is drunk on the job- or realizing that he’s stoned on high-grade pot?
If you say “both would worry me equally”, congratulations- you’ve just grasped one of the two major problems with legalizing drugs.
The other being somebody on the street at ten P.M. saying “Hey, Man, I’m really sorry I have to rob you, but I need my fix, and the State Store closes in five minutes.”
clear ether
eon
#37
Unless Ted Turner runs the State Store, why would said store close at 10:05pm?
Good points nonetheless.
None of this is fair to Mexico. Then again, life is not fair. Mexico is going to suffer as long as they expect anything fair to happen. The US is also in trouble from the same shallow desire for fairness. I do not know if Obama will declare martial law next year as the Russians are predicting but the expectation that it is possible to control drug use by banning the shipment of drugs is silly. In the end we may just have to ban drug users from driving cars and let them take whatever they want. The tight control the FDA has exercised has not promoted better heath to date.
To put the words fair and Mexico in the same sentence is a colossal disgrace.
When has Mexico ever been denied anything by the US ? The US has always exercised fairness in dealing with border issues , societal issues . trade issues or political issues. Mexico has always sought to exploit or profit from the US and play footsies with our enemies at the same time.
The truth is that Mexicos failures are a result of their inability to govern or execute any fair and coherent policy regarding their own affairs .
The US and Texas are about to build a huge north – south super highway from deep south Texas to the north-central states. A highway which will be a giant benefit to Mexico and will not cost them a dime.You can call it a drug runners dream. There is no demand for the highway, it just seems like a good way to squander billions of more tax dollars to punish Mexico.
The guns issue is esspeically disingenuous. #11 eon nailed it – there is a robust WORLDWIDE illegal arms market – but targeting American gunsellers has domestic political traction. When it suits the amnesty crowd, of which Navarette is a member in good standing, collating criminal statistics first must overcome the civil rights obsfuscating -the blatant attempt to prevent collecting data under the guise of proported civil rights protections. Part of the reason we don’t have the rampant police corruption that Mexico has is because we require our professionals to make rational decisions based on FACTS. La Raza, Mexican Legal Defense Fund..a slew of open boarders identity poltics shysters – deal in the opposite – blocking the assemblage & dissemination of the facts – through lawsuits and inducing self-censor in the media. The elevation of Phoenix to the kidnapping capital was widely reported elsewhere before it was ever covered here – going on for over a year – because the local war is about going after Sheriff Joe.
#2 – the basic conservative principle – ‘guns are good’ applies. In Mexico – only the wealthy can arm – and do so clandestinely – because they have no 2nd amem. right to do so. So, other than the wealthy who can barricade themselves and arm – it’s the goverment and the bad guys and there is precious litte difference between the two these days. The bad guys have more and better guns. And they buy off large segments of the government – Like Al Capone’s Chicago –
Contrary to the assertation that some like Navarette have that Americans are ‘primed’ by this Kidnapping explosion – as perhaps the next victims in waiting – We had a rash of kidnappings in the 30′s – economic hard times and all. We as a country stiffened penalties – life & execution – capital crimes. But we were then as now AN ARMED PEOPLE.
#3 Mexico – like most all of Latin America – DOESN’T BELIVE IN CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. It’s a major bone of contention in our extradition agreements. They won’t extradite unless we agree to wave the death penalty. And their criminal syndicates are much more powerful conducting business from prison than they are here.
Mexico is hardly alone in the rampant invasion of organized crime – drug or otherwise. It is just the CLOSEST. It is a joke that we haven’t militarized our boarders simply to appease the amnesty crowd and the cross-polination biz interests. But it’s not funny – it’s dangerous – and getting more so every day.
The legalized drug argument supposes that those who today run the illegal drug business would just go quietly into the night and stop doing what they are doing now, rather than compete against (and take over) the legal version of their product. Absolutely absurd.
There is a naive assumption among legalization advocates that the worst side-effects of drugs (crime, prostitution, disease, etc.) would disappear. But those effects are not caused by laws, they are caused by the drugs themselves. Let me illustrate with this scenario: an addict gets turned away from the legal drug dispensary because the nurses (or whoever) on duty decided he had had enough. Is he just going to go home and say “oh well, I tried”? The illegal trade would run parallel to the legal one, and be ready and waiting for our hypothetical addict. In reality, of course, he needn’t have bothered with the official distribution at all; why deal with that bureaucracy, and those nosy state workers, when you can just get it on the street corner in the first place?
Even legal drugs would be regulated. We have age restrictions on tobacco and alcohol now, and all manner of restrictions on abusable prescription drugs. If anything, legalized drugs would just give more cover to the cartels, who could then subvert and hide within the flow of legal narcotics. The cartels would treat their legal competition much like they treat their illegal competition now, which would pull us deeper into a “drug war” than ever. So unless one is arguing for a complete substance free-for-all, and I suspect some advocates are, legalization would solve nothing, and would make things much worse.
Drugs were never made illegal just because of prudish Christians, they were made so because of their devastating effects on individuals and on society. And sorry to tell you this, but that includes marijuana, as I can personally attest to after years as a high school teacher trying to teach ANYTHING to potheads.
The United States can not stop the drug war at the border. We have to go in, and destroy groups and locations. It is called waging war.
It may sound harsh, but it is the truth.
BTW, secure the border from all these illegal aliens coming here for free health car. It is not free. Someone has to pay for that. Plus, the court/jail cost, the uninsured motorists insurance, and the anchor baby program.
If American used it’s aid to build railroads, schools, water treatment pants etc… on both sides of the border, we might be able to have a respectful relationship with Mexico.
Good fences make good neighbors
Why not share the blame? good question… because it wasn’t our choice. Mexico has some hard decisions to make, lets hope they don’t get all PC on the cartels and decide to make deals. this is the Mexican revolution part 2. the human rights people are gonna have a field day because its going to be brutal for a couple of more years. lets hope our government quits making stupid ass statements about the situation (ops sec) this has been a long term situation and now the chickens have come home to roost. the USA has had its turn with violent criminals who didn’t care what the government had to say. If we can go to Iraq and Afghanistan we can lend a hand to the Mexicans to get some control of their situation. just stfu and do it. for those who don’t know we are already training their officers and the government is mostly Harvard grads and there in maybe lays the problem.
Claro, que no?! Es la verdad, chivato.
20 Mexican gang members in prison were killed today by other Mexican gang members who had taken over the prison. Last month alone there were 250 gang related murders.
Last week a police chief resigned under threats from the drug gangs. The gang put up posters in store windows threatening to murder ten cops a week (or was it per day?) unless the chief resigned. And they got their way. The law buckled under to the gangsters demand.
The only thing Mexico has going for it is their tourist resorts, though that business is fading fast now amid the uncontrolable violence.
It’s no wonder the people are fleeing in droves screaming “run for the border!” and they ain’t talking about Taco Bell!
AFAIK, the Mexican ‘government’ hasn’t provided the serial numbers of any of those evil black guns to the US, to see where they actually traveled. Could be they were stolen from Mexican Army armories, and have little to do with the US.
At any rate, the problem is Mexico’s. If they don’t like what comes across their border, it is their privilege to stop it. However, being a third world failed state they cannot and will not do that, too much graft and corruption is in the way. Likewise, they won’t stop the flow of their best and brightest to the US because those people actually fund the third world failed state by monetary returns home (thanks to Western Union).
And if Ruben doesn’t like Americans telling the truth about Mexico, well, isn’t that just precious? WHO CARES? Note well: He doesn’t suggest that Mexico actually FIX THEIR OWN PROBLEMS, he wants the rest of the world to accommodate them. Mierda dura….
For a truly depressing history of Mexico, read Fehrenbach’s “Fire and Blood”:
http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Blood-T-R-Fehrenbach/dp/0306806282/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236226649&sr=1-4
These people just have no talent for self-government.
What is Spanish for Kleptocracy?
If ten percent of Mexico’s population is now living here, is that evidence of a failed state?
#47. Criminals killing criminals. Life is good!
JAIME : cleptocracia,I
OK Navarette: I’ll settle for calling you a failed journalist instead.
JAIME:#50 : Cleptocracia;in Mexican spanish :”El Gobierno”;in American usage:Democrat party.
Class Clown, I’ve worked at businesses with my fellow employees high on pot, and other recreational pharmaceuticals, and I can tell you—you’re spot on about the bad effects of drugs!
Aside from the fact that, as you point out, legalization wouldn’t do much to stop crime, fact is, a society of blissed-out, stoned, or ultra-hyper/paranoid drugs abusers, who care only about getting high and getting their next fix, wouldn’t work. Behavior would get so bad they’d have to bring the laws against drugs back, just to maintain a bit of order.
I mean, you haven’t lived until you’ve tried to help run a store with at least one of the employees singing loudly, giggling and dancing up and down store because he smoked a few joints on his break. Cash register? Oooooh, man, what’s that? Customers? Heeeee, heeeeeee, haahahahahaha!
“Whooooooeeeeeeee, Mr. Customer! F*k you! Hahahahhahaha! Hey, man, lez all sing! ‘I see a little silhouetto of a man/SCARAMOUCH, SCARAMOUCH, CAN YA DO THA FANDANGO?’”
Yup. Tons of fun. Drugs are sooooooo enlightening!
TALKINKAMEL :Good points;I think you have inadvertently discovered the reason for the Ohole’s election victory!
How many illegal immigrants come from Mexico? Why not identify the cause.
If it is because of predatory practises by the U.S., the E.U., Canada, and all the other countries which engage in hyper subsidies to gravely distort the global agricultural market -
then raise your voice.
Candour counts for something amongst people who
deserve to command respect.
Ahem! David W., we did already raise our voices, with Propostition 187: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_187_(1994)
i will say that it has to take calderon 3 years more to stop with the drug dealers. i cant believe that mexico can go down with the drugs…
And our candour counted for nothing. We were told we were racists for wanting to limit immigration.
Look, we know the drill! Anybody talks about limiting immigration on the American side, trying to build a fence, enforce the laws, deport illegals, it’s always the same: we need illegals because Americans won’t work! (Translation: American workers can’t be pushed around, and they expect things like living wages, and benefits); you just say that because you’re racist, and hate Mexicans! America is a nation of immigrants, and if you don’t want more Mexican immigrants, you’re intolerant! If we had to clean our own houses and pick our own lettuces, prices would sky rocket! Blah, blah, blah, so on and so forth.
Criticize agriculture, you’ll be accused of wanting to destroy the American farm. And all the agri-business people will claim they just gotta have Mexican workers, ‘cuz Americans are just Lazy!
So it goes. (Don’t know what the drill is in Canada, or the EU; I suspect it’s the same).
We have spoken up, we aren’t listened to, and our candour earns us nothing but the accusation that we’re bigots.
And, of course, Mexico does nothing to help. In fact, they love it that illegal immigrants help support Mexico, with the money they send home. If the Mexican economy were stable, if its people stayed home, secure in a nation that was prosperous, governed by rule of law and supported its people by other means than drugs-and-human-smuggling, they wouldn’t be leaving Mexico en masse. Those businesses that depend on illegal labor would either go out of business, or find an honest way to survive.
If anybody is speaking up about this in Canada and the EU, I’m not aware of it. Europe has more problems with Islamic immigrants, and my understanding is they aren’t really involved in agricultural labor.
Another excuse: “Well, our population isn’t increasing, so we need to import all these foreign workers to replace the workers we couldn’t be bothered giving birth to.”
Thanks, deguello!
:>)
Mexico has been a failed state since the Revolution of 1810 and Mr. Navarrete knows it. There was a glimmer of hope in the Revolution of 1910 but that was quickly extinguished with the assassination of Emiliano Zapata. Successful states don’t loose millions of their citizens to emigration. Mexicans are voting with their feet. I rest my case.
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Who is John Galt?
TalkinCamel:
That reminds me of a kind word of reassurance that I have give to younger teachers over the years, whenever they get down about trying to teach something to the knuckleheads. “Just look on the bright side, you could be in the private sector trying to run a business with these guys for employees!”.
I’ll be the first to tell you that the demise of they youth generation has been greatly exaggerated. There are a lot of great kids out there, but there is virtually a one to one correlation between failing students and substance users. Would we ever really want to tell them that the very substances that would wreck their lives now have the governments’ seal of approval?
Class clown, that would be a very bad idea!
And, last, but certainly not least, let’s not forget the power of peer pressure, especially with the young! Make drugs legal, it’s going to make it even harder for kids to resist their friends’ urging to get high.
Since Mexican President Felipe Calderon effectively declared war on the cartels — on the very day he took office in December 2006 — these multi-million dollar criminal enterprises have been fighting back.
Well, Calderon didn’t declare war on the cartels because the US said “pretty please”. He did it because they had gotten completely out of control and had corrupted the Mexican government from top to bottom.
Granted, US drug users are providing the cash to back these cartels. Americans as a whole are unwilling to enact and enforce laws that would truly justify terms like “drug war”. But Mexico’s problems are caused by an economic system that is prone to infection due to its proximity to a prosperous neighbor.
No, it’s not a “failed state”. It’s more of a persistent broken state, like New Orleans before Katrina.
Mexico is a mess. Always has been, alwys will be.
I never thought of it that way! America should declare these drugs dangerous and make them illegal. Then the Mexican criminals would see the error of their ways and stop selling them.
Why blame the Mexican, American, Colombian, etc. governments and their war against drugs?
Blame the stupid drug users.
What’s the use blaming drug users? Isn’t that, you know, cool and unhip? Trying to deny people fun, and their G-d given right to get high, no matter the cost?
/Okay, Sarc. over.
I do blame drug users. I also blame the governments of Mexico, and South America, for running their nations so badly, and for maintaining such corrupt governments, that drugs, rather than agriculture or manufacturing, play such a large part in their economies, and that their legal system is so corrupt they can’t rein the cartels in.
Class clown, I admire your wiseness
Ruben Navarrette is blaming the US for Mexico’s failure of its border security. Guns can be bought in the US legally. The fact that many of them are smuggled into Mexico is because the Mexican border security is totally worthless.
I concur with most commentators that the cartels armoury is not from the U.S. as most of the arms the cartels use are selective fire weaponry. But most likely the source of the AK type weapons is Venezuela and, most likely, the M-16 type weapons come from Mexican military and police stocks. Likely though is that the U.S. might be a source for some of the pistols that are recovered and that may show up in the statistics that are quoted.
I dont agree with you Don: becasue first of all havent you tought that it is imposible for the Mexican Drug dealer to see their error. they dont care about their error they just care about money that is why they deal… dont you think?
i dont agree with Ruebacca! I am Mexican and i think that Mexico is not a mess just because of the drugs and that stuff like that i think that if they work hard they will improve Mexico….
Mexico is a a failed state.
1. Corruption is rampant.
2. The drug cartel controls large segments of Mexican society and territory.
3. Mexico cannot support its own population.
4. Mexico does not have its own economy. 10% of their economy is oil which is about to run out this year or next, 20% is money earned in the USA and sent home by the criminal illegal alien Mexicans in our country, and 70% is US tourism.
5. The population is barely literate. The average Mexican only has a grade school education.
6. Mexico does not have first world values, such as the need to abide by the rule of law, or that every person should have equal protection under the law. They operate with might make right and grab what you can. Ex President Fox of Mexico even publically said that they do not abide by the rule of law.
There is presently a boycott of Mexico going on. Do not vacation there. The purpose is to pressure the Mexican governement to stop its arrogant policies of educating its people on how to break US law and leech off the American taxpayer, and its interference in American policies and its support of groups like the racist organization La Raza (The Race, as in the Superior Race).