America must not wage a literal kinetic war on the Mexican drug cartels. Don't get carried away with decades of "war on drugs" rhetoric. Things can always get worse.
America must defeat the Mexican drug cartels?
America can no longer tolerate narco-terrorist cartels. Operating from havens in Mexico, their production of deadly drugs on an industrial scale is flooding our country with this poison. The time is long past to deal with this outrage decisively. Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R., Texas) and Michael Waltz (R., Fla.) have proposed a joint resolution giving the president authority to use the US military against these cartels in Mexico. This is a necessary step and puts the focus where it must be.
Sure. We need to win the "war". Or at least fight it more effectively. I've even wondered if that crisis would explode on us and require military intervention.
But it must not be a unilateral military effort. Maybe a joint military campaign with the Mexican military would be appropriate. But a unilateral military effort would be counter-productive.
If America embarks on a military campaign, it won't be long before Mexicans see the cartels as the defenders of Mexico. Which will undermine the already weak authority of the Mexican government and drive it to side with the cartels against the invaders from the north.
And then we will be in a war with Mexico. Which will strain the loyalties of some recent immigrants--both legal and illegal--from the region, just as past wars have tested loyalties of those from the enemy countries.
Will we really do to ourselves what the Germans tried to do to us before World War I?
That kind of war undermines the very foundation of our foreign policy:
We assume we have the foundation to project power globally. But it requires work by America to maintain. And if our enemies want to hurt us they would try to destabilize our neighbors and increase our friction with them.
Gosh. I wonder if they are doing that.
I wonder if the supplier of fentanyl would be happy if American military power was tied down in the Western Hemisphere?
A supporting American military role for reconnaissance, sea interdiction, engineering, detention, transportation, and a firepower reserve for DHS border defenses is appropriate.
But otherwise our civilian agencies should fortify and defend the border; go after the cartels inside the United States in cooperation with local law enforcement, of course, and operate forward inside Mexico in cooperation with Mexican law enforcement, paramilitary, and military assets.
And be prepared for "green-on-blue" attacks on our personnel inside Mexico because the cartels have without a doubt infiltrated Mexican agencies.
Fight the cartels with the State Department, DOJ, DHS, CIA, FBI, and NSA. Heck, maybe a real national security mission will divert our federal agencies from looking for enemies among the American citizenry.
Things can always get worse.
UPDATE: The southern border is a hybrid war?
The March 12 Incident On The Paso Del Norte Bridge confirms the U.S.-Mexico border is once again a war zone.
The March 12 Incident is an outrage that demonstrates the U.S. is currently under continuous hybrid war assault.
I strongly disagree. We're actually doing this to ourselves. Democrats refuse to defend and control our border. If we took defending and controlling our border seriously, we'd be winning.
But we're not even trying to win this struggle.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 continues here.
