Just you wait and see

In the run up to the war in Iraq, my WFT sensors went haywire. And now they're blaring again. Turns out that we poor American's are on the verge of being overrun by drug cartels in Mexico, and Mexico is on the verge of becoming ((gasp)) a failed state. Whatever can we American's do to forestall this impending crisis?! Of course - send in the military and "help" the failing state before it blows up and takes us all out with it.

We're getting really good at being the world's cleaning lady. First, we'll clean up Afghanistan, and then Iraq, and now . . . Pakistan? Mexico? Oh, the messes keep piling up, and someone's got to take out the trash.

Recently, the Director of National Intelligence tried to slow down the insanity, claiming that the Pentagon report that we were on the brink of Armageddon was, perhaps, a bit over stated. Blair stated:

Mexico is in no danger of becoming a failed state. [Let me] repeat that. Mexico is in no danger of becoming a failed state. The violence we see now is the result of Mexico taking action against the drug cartels. So it is in fact the result of positive moves, which the Mexican government has taken to break the baneful influence that many of these cartels have had on many aspects of Mexican government and Mexican life.

Of course, this isn't going to amount to much, not when the media and the military industrial complex can exploit American's xenophobia and distrust of anyone darker than a marshmallow to make a profit. What I find especially troubling is the ease with which we - the American public - have swallowed this line. Granted, there are drugs there, and granted there are bad (VERY bad) people doing bad (VERY VERY bad) things, but we need to hit the pause button for a second here and think about what might be helping to fan the fear (e.g. racism, anti-immigrant sentiments, "free" trade agreements, a desire for the Mexican oil (PEMEX)).

I really hope I'm wrong about this, and I hope that we've learned from our knee-jerk response in the past, but I doubt it.

Don't get me wrong -- the reports we hear coming out of Mexico are awful. Something like 6000 people murdered in the past year, women and children (and probably a few men here and there) disappearing, a rise in drug use and drug-related crime. These things are shameful and should be addressed. But addressing a problem doesn't mean shooting bullets at it. In fact, maybe culling the number of bullets involved would solve it.

If we really want to support Mexico and help stem the growing violence and mayhem, maybe we could stop buying their drugs or selling them automatic weapons, ammunition, and other fun-filled hardware? Oh, maybe we could actually enforce laws that would limit the ability of cartels to smuggle money and weapons into Mexico? Before we go in, guns a'blazin, maybe we should use the legal and potentially more useful tools we already have.

Failed state my ass.