Marching orders

Soldier: "The Mexican Army defends our sovereignty" FeCal:"... and the Government to follow Washington's orders."

With Proconsul Ambassador Carlos Pascual having deigned to inform the Mexican Senate of what is expected from them to fight the U.S. drug addiction problem, now its time to call in the Legionaries — not of Christ (they must have been at an orgy when the call came in) — but the honchos who will give FeCal his marching orders next week:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will lead the VIP group, which will include Defense Secretary Robert Gates; Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; the president’s top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan; National Intelligence director Dennis Blair; and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

I’m not sure when Mexico became the “Homeland” that Janet Napolitano supposedly is in charge of the Security for, and making gangsters into “terrorists” (i.e., giving them credibility) is what set off this round of violence in the borderlands and — what’s scary — the United States is sending in the Secretary of Defense (i.e., “War”) and the highest ranking military officer in the country to “consult” with the Mexican government.

Napolitano’s remarks to the effect that the Mexican military presence in Juarez and elsewhere was exacerbating the situation set off some grumbling in the Calderón Administration, which, after all, was what the United States wanted in exchange for giving that administration its support.  Although, as Malcolm Beith puts it, “the lefties will rightly scream about” U.S. interference, I expect there will be.  Napolitano’s remarks, like those of Pascual seem designed to mobilize still more govenment intervention in this one particular social issue — which might make THEIR homeland more secure, but does little or nothing to ameliorate the social and economic situations that make the narcotics trade a logical means of survival for so many.

And, for that matter, all this focus on what’s a threat to the United States means ignoring other pressing needs.  Stinting on things like education, land reform, water rights that make people’s lives tolerable are being scaled back.  Why?  So the United States doesn’t have to deal with its own out of control narcotics problem and can still pretend it’s “violence spilling over” into a society based on barbaric economic and social thinking.

Malcolm asks “why not use some of that impressive US technology in the Sinaloan hills?”

Because that’s a little closer to my home than the impressive U.S. technology used in Afghan hills, for starters?