Tim Rutten: The war we gave Mexico - Violence linked to the U.S.

The war we gave Mexico - The drugs, guns and culture that fuel the violence all are linked to the U.S.

Tim Rutten - LA Times
February 28, 2009

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-oe-rutten28-2009feb28,0,2564151.column

Early in the last century, near the end of his 34 bloody years in power, the aging Mexican strongman Porfirio Diaz mused that his country's great misfortune was to be located "so far from God and so near the United States."

The shrewd old thief's observation came to mind this week when U.S. officials announced they'd joined with Mexican authorities in arresting more than 730 people allegedly linked to the Sinaloa drug cartel. That gang is the most powerful of the numerous criminal organizations smuggling drugs into the United States. Their intramural quarrels and resistance to a government crackdown have plunged Mexico into a round of violence unseen since the Cristero Wars in the 1920s. Over the last year, about 6,000 Mexicans have been killed.

Many fear that Mexico could be sliding into civil instability because of the cartels' increasing willingness to use violence and bribery to protect their business. It's an old story in other parts of Latin America, and for that reason, three of the region's former heads of state -- including onetime Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo -- recently issued a report urging the U.S. to consider legalizing at least marijuana. Fat chance.

Similarly, at a news conference this week, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. set off a firestorm when he mentioned in passing that the U.S. should consider restoring its ban on the sale of military-style assault weapons. That prohibition, adopted in 1994, contained a clause requiring Congress to renew the ban after 10 years. To nobody's surprise, Congress didn't, and now assault weapons, semiautomatic pistols and .50-caliber rifles that are illegal in Mexico flow into the hands of the drug traffickers there from an estimated 6,000 American gun dealers in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Thus, America's political decisions to treat drug addiction as a crime rather than a public health problem, and to legalize AK-47s but not pot, fuel an incipient civil war in Mexico.

(snip)

Mexico's drug war could escalate into widespread civil strife with incalculable consequences for the U.S. -- and, particularly, the Southwest. And we're kidding ourselves if we insist that this is a problem that can be wholly solved south of the border, or quarantined there if events spiral out of control. It's impossible to know how close either the United States or Mexico is to God, but geographically, culturally and economically, they've never been closer to one another.

If Americans really are concerned about the horrific toll inflicted by Mexico's narco-gangsters, we need to ask some tough questions about our own cultural and political delusions.

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This is a very important issue to our country when we least can afford it!
:think:

The cost has been deliberately jacked up sky high as a "military-industrial complex" and "prison-industrial complex" boondoggle. It is exactly the same as the war profiteering in Iraq. It is a war profiteer scam.

The solutions are very simple:

1. Legalize marijuana - cut the price out from under the cartels. They will disappear tomorrow.

2. Tax marijuana sales, like anything else.

3. (In my opinion) Legalize ALL drugs. Same benefits.

4. Release about 70% of our prison population (all non-violent offenders). Costs about $40,000/year to imprison people for long sentences on drug charges. Zillions of dollars saved. Would have plenty for rehab.

5. With drugs legalized and cheap, the prisons will not fill up again.

6. Ban assault weapons, of course. Those are nuts. We want dead policemen? Jeez.

&. END the corrupt, failed, murderous U.S. "war on drugs" here and in other countries. It is more war profiteering. It is costing us TRILLIONS of dollars, and ALWAYS makes the problem WORSE. We've poured $6 BILLION into the militarization of Colombia, with not a dent in the cocaine trade! Country after country, in South America, is rejecting this U.S. "war" and enacting SANE drug laws and good policing. What is happening is exactly like what happened with Prohibition in the 1920s--the creation of gangs and cartels trading in the forbidden item. That's why the Prohibition amendment was rescinded. It didn't work!

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The first 6 items alone would bring about a dramatic de-escalation of violence and crime associated with the drug trade, and would--experience in other countries has shown--reduce the numbers of users and addicts. It would furthermore free up trillions of dollars for creating a good society. If we were to end the U.S. "war on drugs" altogether, we could probably wipe out the federal debt, pay for universal health care and pour money into "green" science to save the planet, as well as create full employment.

It is so utterly crazy, what we are doing, I can't even type it all. And I haven't even mentioned the probability that the Bush Cartel has been profiting from the drugs/weapons traffic, and maybe are even behind the drug cartel war in Mexico, for purposes of war profiteering.

which are not available at all in the United States (they are as tightly controlled here as howitzers, hand grenades, and tank cannons), there is more going on here. I have no doubt that U.S. handguns and some non-automatic civilian rifles are going south, but the cartels are not getting their restricted military hardware here unless they are getting it from the U.S. military or law enforcement agencies.

The CIA did, however, distribute hundreds of thousands of M16's all over Central America in the 1970's and 1980's, and the Soviets did likewise with AK-47's (real ones) and RPG's, during the constant Cold War proxy conflicts there. Looks like Mexico may be reaping some unintended consequences of that.

BTW, non-automatic, U.S.-legal civilian AK lookalikes were not "legalized" in 2004; they were always legal, but after 2004 were allowed to have screw-on muzzle brakes, bayonet lugs, and folding stocks again. I shoot competitively with one, and purchased it in 2003 (it is a 2002 model).

BTW, I'm 100% with you on cannabis legalization, and I say that as a non-user. Fighting a literal military war, and bringing a nation down, over an herb that is clinically and socially far less dangerous than alcohol is just asinine.