A New GOP Platform – Standby to Attack Mexico

 

That US demand for illicit narcotics and the ready availability of guns (including military assault rifles) in and from the United States has fueled the cross-border narco trade and cartel explosion south of our border – from Mexico to South America – is never mentioned. It’s always someone else’s fault, and if they don’t fix it, we will. We’ll bomb them. Invade them. Strafe them. We will fix this! You mean the way we fixed Afghanistan, the great purveyor of opium-related illicit narcotics? I know, I’ve blogged this topic more than once, but increasingly GOP candidates are resorting to threats of violence controlled and directed by US forces against Mexican targets. Even if those malignant cartels are Mexico’s own targets, entering another country with military force unless invited is called: invasion. Like what Russia did to Ukraine to “de-Nazify” their neighbor. Think of the war crimes we would have to commit.

Unlike Europe, where regional wars and both world wars raged among and between continental neighbors, the United States has been blessed for well over a century by two large border neighbors with no wars, no conflicts… nothing more than an occasional trade dispute. More than neighbors and major trading partners. Allies. So much of what we eat comes from Mexico. One of our largest ethnic minorities are Latinx from south of the border. Look at the last names of large segments of our country, especially in those border states, to understand why almost 20% of our own population has those Latinx roots.

None of these factors seems to be even a slight deterrent to the violent rhetoric pouring out of the mouths of so many GOP candidates. Not since Donald Trump’s “rapists” tirade against Mexico and it border crossers has so much violence spittle spewed forth with such consistency from a sizeable majority of Republican presidential aspirants. German Lopez, writing for the July 31st New York Times, provides the details:

“Trump led the way: He asked defense officials about striking Mexico with missiles while he was president, and during the 2024 presidential campaign he has supported military action. Ron DeSantis has called for using deadly force and a naval blockade of Mexican ports to stop drug traffickers. More moderate candidates, like Tim Scott and Nikki Haley, have also backed using the military against drug cartels in Mexico… ‘You know what you tell the Mexican president? ‘Either you do it or we do it,’ ’ Haley said in March. ‘But we are not going to let all of this lawlessness continue to happen.’…

“Taking cues from Trump’s 2016 campaign playbook and presidency, other Republicans have already translated his disparagement of Mexicans and other Latinos into policy, particularly on immigration. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott put razor wire, floating barriers and state troopers along the U.S.-Mexico border to deter people from coming into the country illegally. The federal government sued Texas last week [third week in July] to try to stop him…

“Republicans often portray the idea of fully militarizing the war on drugs as an evolution in policy: treating Mexican cartels like ISIS or other terrorist groups. But unilaterally deploying the military to Mexico would be a significant escalation of U.S. policy.

“I spoke to half a dozen drug policy and counterterrorism experts across the political spectrum. All of them criticized the approach as extreme, ineffective and self-destructive. “In 35 years, this takes the prize as the stupidest idea I have ever heard,” said Jonathan Caulkins at Carnegie Mellon University.

“In addition to the likely humanitarian toll and the hit to U.S. standing in the world, any incursion into Mexico could worsen the same problems Republicans are trying to address. To the extent that the U.S. has succeeded in stemming illegal immigration and drugs in recent years, it has relied on Mexico’s close cooperation. Both Trump and President Biden have worked with Mexican officials to stop South and Central Americans from traveling to the U.S. through Mexico.

“Mexico would almost certainly stop collaborating if the U.S. sent troops or let missiles fly. Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has said that talk of sending the U.S. military south of the border is ‘irresponsible’ and ‘an offense to the people of Mexico, a lack of respect for our sovereignty.’” So, let’s see, such a military effort would turn an ally into a clear enemy, cost billions of dollars, violate international laws… and like most such efforts, fail miserably. We’d be saddled with the consequences of this failed effort for decades, costing us even more in hard dollars… and probably driving a neighbor into greater alliance with China, perhaps even resulting in China’s having a military base in Mexico.

I’m Peter Dekom, and a major American political party is talking about starting a war with Mexico, when we refuse to deal with the root problems right that caused it all: American demand for illicit drugs and our supplying the guns necessary to keep the cartels in power.