D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h Quote of the Day: "All great truths began as blasphemies." -- George Bernard Shaw, Annajanska, 1919
Subject: Mexican Civil War could spill over into U.S.
You're not hearing about it yet, but a civil war is raging in Mexico -- between drug lords and the government. The Mexican government deployed 36,000 troops to fight this war in 2006, but the problem is getting worse. Here are the disconcerting results . . .
* There have been more kidnappings in Mexico than Iraq! 1,000 have been officially reported, but human rights groups estimate the real number at 3,000.
* Despite high-profile arrests but the bloodshed has doubled from 2007 to 2008, with between 5,300 and 5,700 dead in the past year from attacks related to the drug trade.
* The city of Ciudad Juárez ended the year with 1,600 of those deaths
Now this violence is threatening to spill across our border!
* The violence is so bad in Ciudad Juárez that the mayor and other elected officials have moved to El Paso, Texas, and commute to work from there.
* In October, Hidalgo County, Texas officials issued fully automatic weapons to deputies patrolling the river in the Rio Grande Valley. Sheriff Lupe Trevino has authorized his deputies to return fire across the border if smugglers or other criminals take aim at them.
* According to the Dallas Morning News, "A U.S. intelligence official based along the Texas border (has) warned that U.S. officials, American businessmen and journalists will 'become targets.'"
* Mexican gangs have begun to expand their operations into several states, including some in the northern tier, such as Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota.
* Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has ordered plans for a "surge" of civilian and perhaps even military law enforcement. Even Chertoff concedes that his plan could cause the bloodshed to spill over into our country.
Why is this happening, and how can we stop it?
The politicians have their typical answer, which is to do more of what hasn't worked. They want to spend more of your tax money trying to keep drugs out of the U.S. We've been doing this for nearly half a century, and it hasn't worked. Even people inside the government admit this.
On top of that, a government plan called the Mérida Initiative is sending $400 million to help the Mexican government fight this war. The details of this plan are still incomplete, but the total projected cost over the next 3 - 6 years is $1.4 billion. This is yet another foreign war, on top of Iraq and Afghanistan, at a time of severe economic stress.
The U.S. intelligence official quoted above by the Dallas Morning News provides the key to solving this problem when he says, ". . . you can't really do that (stop the fighting) until you weaken (the) drug traffickers . . ."
How do you weaken the drug traffickers? You take away their obscene black-market profits.
Al Capone and the mafia got rich running alcohol during Prohibition. When Prohibition ended the violence ended too. Jim Beam distributors don't do drive-by shootings on outlets that sell Jack Daniels. And neither Jim Beam nor Jack Daniels are killing politicians, policemen, journalists, and private citizens.
Black-market drug profits fund criminal enterprises that threaten your safety, not only at home and in Mexico, but around the world. Taliban warlords in Afghanistan and Pakistan fund much of their operations through the illicit drug trade.
The solution to the coming spillover of the Mexican Drug War is simple: Stop doing the same failed thing over and over again. Do something different. End drug prohibition in the United States, and thereby defuse the Mexican Civil War and defund the terrorists in Afghanistan.
TAKE ACTION using our Educate the Powerful System. Please send your Representative and Senator a message telling them to defund the Mexican drug lords by ending the war on drugs.
Use the points made in this message to personalize your letter.
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Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
P.S. Jim Babka is a guest on Gary Nolan's talk show this evening. Details are available at the Downsize DC blog.
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Libertas inaestimabilis res est - Liberty is a thing beyond all price. | Sic Semper Tyrannis

So is a war on mexico inevitable? If so, I say we might as well start right here in my neighborhood,~LOL~.

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

Lol, well yeah, it does always make sense to start in one's own backyard when it comes to cleaning up the trash...

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Libertas inaestimabilis res est - Liberty is a thing beyond all price. | Sic Semper Tyrannis

There's the good, the bad and the ugly. There's some real ugly going on around here.

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

Makes me glad I'm no longer in the South West...

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Libertas inaestimabilis res est - Liberty is a thing beyond all price. | Sic Semper Tyrannis

That fact that rapists and murders get shorter sentences because we need to lock up marijuana users makes me say "yes the war on drugs endangers the United States".

Well, that's a definite truth. It's a waste of economic resources. Who knows what interesting ideas those people were pursuing, or could potentially come up with to make money if they were not locked up?

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Libertas inaestimabilis res est - Liberty is a thing beyond all price. | Sic Semper Tyrannis

Or what kind of better jobs they could get that would keep them from being a drain on society. One paraphanalia charge and you can't qualify for most jobs. Imagine how many people who wouldn't need welfare or food stamps if they didn't have that black mark on their record over a plant.

A couple to Several tens of millions, I'd imagine, maybe more...

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Libertas inaestimabilis res est - Liberty is a thing beyond all price. | Sic Semper Tyrannis

I dont think there are tens of millions people on welfare...in fact I know so, I googled it

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If god dropped acid, would he see people?