Drug War Clock

Mexican Drug War Ensnares U.S.
March 15, 2010
* U.S. Still Not Making Difficult Choices Foreign Policy's Blake Hounshell sighs that Obama's approach mirrors Bush's in its biggest failing: Not dealing with America's "demand-side" contribution to the problem. "If you ask me, it all seems like doubling down on a failed strategy -- a typical example of trying to solve a social and political problem through military and technical means." Obama has "zero new ideas for addressing the demand side of the equation, and the administration's new drug budget looks a heckuva lot like Bush's drug budget, with its focus on interdicting supplies over treating drug addicts and reducing the secondary effects of drug use."

* Next War On Drugs Front: Corruption The Economist sounds the alarm: Are cash-rife cartels flooding money to American border officials? Is corruption the next front in the war on drugs? "As it becomes harder to smuggle through the desert, the legitimate ports of entry become a more attractive avenue. Corruption does not have to be widespread to matter. Individual officers have enormous discretion at the ports of entry. They make the call about whether a truck should be waved through the lane or diverted for secondary inspection, often in a matter of seconds and based on nothing more than a quick look and their practised intuition."

* Could Spread to U.S. The Moderate Voice's Jerry Remmers warns, "The death toll attributed to drug cartels is more than 45,000 lives and the battle has spread to the U.S. border cities with kidnappings and brutal assaults. It is only a matter of time when these towns and cities join the killing fields." Cartel-related violence sometimes bleeds across the U.S. border (Juarez is mere miles from El Paso, for example), but never at levels approaching those in Mexico.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Mexican-Drug-War-Ensnares-US-2838