Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Mexico's Drug War - Our Fault?

Hillary Clinton, currently en route to Mexico to show the U.S. Government's support of Mexico's fighting police force, speaks regarding the Mexican Drug War in response to the Obama Administration's plan to pump 700 million into fighting this "potential new Iraq/Afghanistan"

"Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,"

"Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians. So, yes, I feel very strongly we have a co-responsibility."

"We are going to demonstrate that we are spending it in an accountable and effective manner that will assist the Mexicans in law enforcement and justice,"

"When you go into a gunfight or are trying to round up these bad guys and they have military-style equipment that is much better than yours, you start out at a disadvantage. Since we know the vast majority of that comes from our country, we are going to help stop it from getting there in the first place."

-Hillary Clinton

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And going on a slight tangent, Senators have begun to criticize Obama for not allocating enough federal resources in the fight against drug related violence along the Mexican-US border.

Mexican drug cartels, believed to be operating in more than 230 American cities "from Appalachia to Alaska," represent a "clear and present" danger to the United States, Lieberman said at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on border violence.

"I think you're going to need more resources to get this job done," he told Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. The United States needs to "make life miserable" for the drug cartels so "life is better for us," he said.

Committee member Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, also praised the Obama administration's plan, but agreed with Lieberman that more needs to be done.

-CNN Article

McCain & Lieberman at a meeting regarding Mexico's border violence.

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It seems pretty clear to me that better gun control is necessary in our country. What do you think about this? Are we wasting precious resources fighting for a lost cause while we need to allocate more of our wealth/resources/focus on our current economic crisis, or should we be helping Mexico fight against a problem that may be our fault?

2 comments:

John Paulino said...

I agree that we are partially responsible for the drug problem that's getting out of control. Many Americans purchase drugs from Mexico and that encourages drug lords to produce more drugs. Although I agree that we should help Mexico in fighting this "potential new Iraq/Afghanistan", I don't support the government giving Mexico $700 million to fight them. That huge amount of money should be spent HERE. There are thousands of people who are losing their jobs throughout the country and I think the government's top priority should be the people over here, not in Mexico.

bryan moore said...

The sad thing about this article is that the same republican senators calling for Obama to spend more money fighting these drug cartels are the same senators who have voted against gun control laws that would make it much more difficult for the American weapons fueling the firefight to make it across the border or even be sold in the USA