Erik Norvelle wrote:
I would like to re-emphasize my basic point. President Calderón is as good an ally as the U.S. has south of the border. Humor is in the eye of the beholder, and given that we are short of allies, it is better to not spit on the ones we have.
Of course, that’s precisely the problem, isn’t it. Even the Mexicans most favorably disposed to the United States could easily be mistaken for enemies. The Mexicans are still smarting from their utter humiliation in the Mexican War (at least as they perceived it — the Americans in Scott’s Army that marched from Vera Cruz to Mexico City did not regard the Mexican military with contempt — there was a lot of hard fighting, and the outcome of some of the battles was not nearly so obvious at the time as it looks in retrospect) and the fact that despite being a tremendously wealthy country in resources, Mexico is still a third world dump.
If Mexico and the Mexicans are ever going to get it together to join the 20th century (let alone the 21st), they have to totally change the way they do business and adopt the notions of civic virtue, the rule of law, and respect for life, liberty and property that has made the hated Anglo-Saxons so successful.
