Zenpundit Channels Orson Wells in War of the Narco-Cartels

Results of ambush by cartel gunman

area of Mexico under cartel control

General Obregon, Pancho Villa, General Pershing, and Lt George Patton. 1916

When I first began to read this post over at Zenpundit, for sentence or two thought I had missed a news flash. Reading further revealed it to be an chilling view of a future that might be just months away. Mark deserves major kudos for breaking the glass in the fire alarm and calling attention to what has been going on in Mexico as President Calderon battles the narco-cartels for what amounts to control of the future of Mexico.

Mark's post begins:

WASHINGTON, DC - Flanked by the embattled President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon and the Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, a weary looking President Barack Obama used a press conference to angrily denounce as “Alarmist and inflammatory” a recent report issued by the conservative Heritage Foundation that declared the massive chain of UN administered Mexican Refugee camps in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas as ”a bottomless well for narco-insurgency” and “a threat to the territorial integrity of the United States”. The camps, home to at least 2.5 million Mexican nationals, are dominated by the “Zetas Confederales”, a loose and ultraviolent umbrella militia aligned with the feuding Mexican drug cartels that now control upwards of 80 % of Mexico.

The shocking second paragraph of this bulletin is destined to cause serious thought and reaction across the blogs and hopefully amid the halls of congress. Mark is not one to be flippant in his posts and this one is as serious as any he has ever posted.

Read more: A Mexican Standoff with Reality

I have written posts about the deteriorating conditions just across our southern border and will continue to promote and link information to stimulate action. We are currently engaged in a war against the Taliban in Afghanistan almost 8000 miles around the globe. The war Mexico is waging within itself is our making. The cartels are responding to the United States being the global demand source for drugs.

Mexico needs our help. Kinetic solutions launched from our side of the border will not solve the problem. The United States had a semi militarized border with Mexico from 1846 to 1943. This period ranged from open war (1846) to incursions (1916) and patrols from a line of forts on the border from Brownsville to San Diego. The storied 1st Cavalry Division was organized to preform this task and conducted patrols from 1921 until 1943. A return to those days is something that neither of our nations wants. But, something must be done.

Addressing the demand coming from the United States is a first step to draining the swamp. How we approach that may take the weight of the imaginary events portrayed in Mark's post to finally get traction.

Below are several previous links I have posted about the violence in Mexico.

Bloody Thanksgiving Weekend

World Police Blotter

Drug Wars, Corporate Welfare and Teaching Technê

UPDATE

Several of the regular commentators at Zenpundit have linked their take on Mark's post.

http://pundita.blogspot.com/2009/03/washington-continues-to-plays-ostrich.html

Cartel War Zen « The Committee of Public Safety

Bloody Thanksgiving Weekend

Jos, Nigeria Riots

Cartel Death Toll

Closed shops in Tijuana

The news from afar this Thanksgiving weekend has been dominated by the terror in the streets of Mumbai, India. An equally deadly clash occurred in Nigeria over of all things, election results. This story has been pushed off the front pages, by way of being just another fatal spasm in a failed state.

Small Wars Journal with it's excellent Daily Roundup of major stories, linked the following.

Deadly Clashes Break Out in Nigerian City - Associated Press

Hundreds Killed in Nigeria Over Election Results - Agence France-Presse

At Least 200 Die in Nigeria Clashes - Associated Press

Closer to home are these stories about out southern neighbor, Mexico and her deadly struggle with drug cartels.

The story, reported by Philip Sherwell in Tijuana, Mexico begins:

The four men in bulletproof vests, Kalashnikovs held casually at their sides, crossed the street to Tijuana's Crazy Banana pool hall so calmly that onlookers presumed they were undercover police officers – until they heard the gunfire and screams.

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Moments later, the men raced back out of the bar and sped off in a getaway car, leaving the once-popular pool hall with its thatched roof and yellow painted walls a bullet-ridden crime scene.

The five billiards players gunned down there were the some of the latest victims in a brutal drug turf war that has unleashed an orgy of killing along America's southern frontier.

The attack was one of dozens of recent incidents in the sprawling Mexican border city, where nearly 300 people have been killed since late-September – many mutilated, tortured and beheaded in gruesome terror tactics copied from Iraq's brutal conflict.

More....Drugs Turf War Turns Mexico's Tijuana into Death Zone - Daily Telegraph

And 750 miles to the east, this from BBC News.

A group of masked gunmen have killed eight people at a restaurant in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez.

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Police said the gunmen arrived at the restaurant in three cars, approached a group of people and opened fire.

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The city, across the frontier from El Paso in Texas, has seen spiralling violence this year, most of it connected with the drug industry

More.....Mexican Diners Killed by Gunmen - BBC News

Pay close attention, the death toll in Tijuana, in three months is almost 300 and the total for the year is 685. The national toll is over 4000, this places Mexico in the ranks of one of the most dangerous places in the world. All of this is taking place just a few miles south of San Diego. Not all the victims are rival drug gang members. hundreds of innocents have been killed in the crossfire.

The possibility of cross border migration of this violence is a reality. Several months ago, cartel members posing as police pulled off a hit in Phoenix. And in October, a young boy was kidnapped from his Las Vegas home by drug dealers posing as police, in an effort to intimidate a family member involved with drug smuggling.

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Events thousands of miles away impact all Americans. An Indian Pakistan Conflict endangers our troops in Afghanistan by threatening the supply chain and reducing what little border security that Pakistan is providing. Nigerian riots are not good for anyone, and ends up being ignored by most of the world as events in India and closer to home take precedent. Mexico is on our doorstep and deserves more attention to help their government in this fight to regain control of their country.