A few weeks back, I hinted that Mexico might want to negotiate a pause with the drug cartels if it didn’t want to get Venezuela’d. US strikes on alleged cartel drug boats are a not-so-subtle message. That rhetorical war on drugs thing the US Government had been laundering money through for decades, only to have the problem get worse, isn’t just about words.
We will publicly blow you up until you stop, sends a message.
Trump seems committed to using a big hammer. There might be sneaky special ops raids and targeted drone strikes, but this has a sort of Iran nuke facility feel to it. Find it, wreck it. Celebrate in the new ballroom.
The U.S. is reportedly planning to send troops and intelligence officers into Mexico to target drug cartels, former and current U.S. officials told NBC News Monday.
Training has reportedly already begun for such a “potential” mission, two current U.S. officials told NBC News, though no deployment to Mexico is imminent.
The plan would deploy both U.S. military and CIA personnel on the ground in Mexico and include drone strikes on cartel targets, according to the report.
Reports are like warning shots. And there may be a diplomatic angle—joint operations. Not sure about that. Is it better to say, you have operations killing our citizens, you do nothing about, and we’re taking them out?
There’s not much the Mexican government can do on the ground. Mexico is a de facto narco-state whose policing infrastructure is at best indifferent to more than Potemkin efforts at stopping this multi-billion dollar export—too much money at stake. But you can’t stop Trump, and if you choose not to, maybe he solves some problems for you.
I have concerns, but the arguments for an actual kinetic war on drug cartels seem sound. They’ve facilitated the death of more Americans than uniformed troop casualties in all our modern wars, combined. Civilian casualties, mostly.
China uses Mexican cartels to kill us and destabilize our country. Force us to direct resources at a never-ending problem that might not go away even if Trump were to score significant victories against cartels.
The cartels profit from drugs, human trafficking, and as mules for illegals, who then cost the US additional resources. They help our enemies get combatants into the interior.
Their gang assets in the country use drugs and drug money to engage in other forms of crime and intimidation. On paper, an actual war on the drug cartels has significant potential upside if it is short, powerful, and uncompromising.
Anyone who knows someone who died from an overdose might at least begrudgingly nod yes to this sort of “overseas” action, especially when it’s not overseas but on our doorstep.
Not a fan of any boots on the ground. Not that big a fan of any large-scale military action. But blowing up drug lords doesn’t much concern me. No one else will do it. No one.
Trump isn’t afraid to use force, but he is a much bigger fan of using what he has as leverage to make deals. If you really were going to engage in kinetic action inside a neighboring country, you probably wouldn’t let the world know.
This has Art of the Deal all over it, and the attacks on cartel boats are chess moves. The report on training for action in Mexico is too. But can the Mexican government actually do anything to stop Trump from drone striking cartel sites?
