"We have a criminal insurgency by organized crime that may well be a precursor to civil anarchy in part or all of Mexico,"
"There is in fact an insurgency on both sides of the American-Mexican border and it's stepped up a lot in the last several years because the Bush administration ignored it and put its focus on Iraq,"
"We have to do something now along the border, but just doing these little things that the administration announced today won't solve the problem in the long term,"
In fact, the Obama administration has unveiled a plan that could involve 700 million dollars that would allow the U.S. to work with Mexico to try and solve these problems.This conflict, however, seems to be escalating in a way that some speculators have already begun to refer to it as "the next Iraq or Afghanistan"...
What do you think needs to be done? $700 Million seems to be a step to solving the problem, but clearly it isn't going to be the solution.
3 comments:
The most I've noticed about this issue comes from the back pages of the Chronicle. But it's a massive issue. The drug lords have essentially taken over the government, and the parallels between them and the terrorists seem quite logical, if not completely accurate. The drug lords are the major forces in the structure of many Mexican cities--they are the police, and they have participated in acts of terror against the civilians. It concerns me that such a powerful, threatening force, just outside our borders, not a world away in a completely foreign land, escapes notice. The lives of the Mexican people are certainly in limbo. And the issue seems to need our attention. Yet we cannot take too much on our plate, what with Iraq and the current state of our economy, the problem in Mexico seems to have heightened at a completely inconvenient time. But it certainly showcases the current state of affairs--we're so busy with all the issues at hand, that this collapse of a governmental structure has been put on the back burner of reporting. But maybe its something the people don't want to hear—its just another country that needs our help, subject to and controlled by the whims of the "bad guys". It sounds like the same old story, one which we just now seem to be ending. In addition, its a scary thought, all this is happening just outside our borders. But most concerning to me, is that the issue has not received more attention. We really must be in bad shape if we don't seem to notice something that's happening right under our noses. And it me that's a signal we need to get our heads out of the east, it's clearly due time to move on, the world is not centered around us and our problems with the middle east, there are plenty of other places that need our assistance. Frankly, I have no idea what needs to be done. I don't think however, that just sending money into the situation will help. There are so many factors could possibly disrupt the flow of that money. It seems to me that we need to work with reputable Mexican officials and help them devise policy which will curb the power of these drug lords and help them regain control over the situation and their country.
wow when we have enough debt on us to begin with... 700 million?? no i think this is not the time to be intervening anymore. Obama said he would pull us out of the iraq war and now we are getting into it again with another country. Its a disbelief to know that our new president would think of doing this and spending money like that. Im sure this will bring out the best intentions but this can hurt our economy! Nonetheless risk another war!
This is a very serious issue. Although, I don't think addressing it as a "terrorist threat" is necessary. It is crime of a different sort. However, it's seriousness definitely tops the list. Adding to the fact that Bush pretty much ignored this issue during his presidency makes it all the more worse because he ignored it for so long that the drug cartels figured they could just get away with it and not be punished, and yes that happened. I don't think we can afford to put 700 million towards this problem, especially because we have more to worry about, but we definitely cannot avoid the problem. Negotiation with Mexico is a must before we put in money into this plan because it could turn into another Iraq/ Afghanistan and thats something our country does not need.
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