Mexico

I read this morning in the New York Times about a big shootout at an apartment complex south of Mexico City. Apparently the Mexican Navy stormed the place and killed Arturo Beltran Leyva. The gunbattle involved grenades and explosions and evacuations and witnesses asking to go unnamed out of fear for their safety and...

Big fucking deal. Here's the one statistic that shocked me: According to the New York Times, over 14,000 people have died in Mexico since it's president, Felipe Calderon deployed 45,000 troops across Mexico to crush all these drug smuggling cartels. 14,000. To date, America has lost 5,303 troops as these wars have gone on in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's according to the US Defense Dept. Hell, a total of 16,646 troops were wounded in action and didn't return to duty.

"So, what is Gen. Splendid getting at?" I don't really know for sure, but I do know that the Mexicans are fighting another civil war (they've had a few) and over 14,000 of them have died in it's wake. Who knows where the toll of the wounded would land? I also know why this civil war is being fought. U.S. drug use.

Even in the midst of a viscious recession, our demand for illicit drugs is so high that smuggling cartels can and will form their own armies to make sure they can get them to us. It's so violent along our border with Mexico that we hardly cross it anymore. Sooner fans are so scared that they won't even go to El Paso for the Sun Bowl out of fear of the violence. To El Paso's credit, it's probably a fine place and plenty safe. Oklahomans have a tendency to over-react to just about anything. However, Americans just don't go across that border anymore. Why would they? Nobody wants to be kidnapped or get caught in the middle of a gunfight. Moreover, the drugs are delivered to us. We've no reason to go to Mexico, except to vacation. That's pretty awesome and it's safe. This makes me wonder what Mexico would do if we didn't do drugs and vacation there.

Anyway, getting back to the point, Mexico is fighting a civil war because we demand that they do so. We're financing it. How's that sit with you? We're financing a civil war that is born solely from our demand for illicit drugs. By the way, we're financing that out of financing that we're getting from China and oil rich Arabian states.

Washington quickly applauded Mexico for this killing and Mexico hailed it as a major victory in their crackdown on the cartels. Maybe it is, but what does it really accomplish. I really don't think it signals the end of this Mexican civil war as I've no doubt someone's very willing to step up to that cartel's leadership role and the other cartels will surely take advantage of their competitions' setback. We can be absolutely sure that this won't have any affect on the American demand for drugs. So, this true war of attrition will go on. Mexican casualties will certainly continue to go up.

The economic effect is just as nasty. Our demand won't go down. Ever. What we'll do is to continue to add to our deficit by funding a civil war that will only raise prices of the illicit drugs we crave. Would anybody like to do a Cost Benefit Analysis on any of this?

All this makes me feel strange. I know that I've certainly purchased some of the illicit items and I know that I'm helping to pay (and will coninue to pay) for this Mexican war. I guess in the end, I'm partly responsible for thousands of Mexican and American deaths. Should I feel guilty? I don't know. All the Mexicans I've ever met were gems. I mean that, they were just as welcoming and helpful as they could be. I've worked with many that only strived to better themselves. Who am I supposed to be angry at? My government, my recreational drug use, my varying levels of morality, or the Mexicans for relegating themselves to bitch status in North America?

Maybe all this is too heavy a topic for this blog, but it's the only site I've ever blogged on, so eat me. I just think that if we had lost over 14,000 citizens anywhere in the space of 3 years, we'd be freaking the fuck out.

As is always the case, our generation can count on another problem our baby-boomer parents can't solve to get worse before they pass it on to us. Thank God they at least gave us the Eagles.