This hasn't gotten much play here or in the media (mainstream or online for that matter), but Mexico really does increasingly seem to be in danger of collapsing. The drug cartels control huge swaths of the country, to the point where the only government or civil officials who can enter those areas is the military in force (some 45,000 soldiers have been called up to effectively be the police in northern Mexico).
Some links worth reading for background:
State department issues travel advisory for MexicoMexico on the brink of collapse - libertarian/conservative but the facts match others I've read
Texas planning for Mexican collapse - not as sensational as it sounds, but worth worrying about
The US really isn't equipped to deal with the effects of what by all rights seems like it could be called a civil war spilling into our territory, and it doesn't help that the government officials that are most immediately going to have to deal with any fallout (southern state governments, border patrol, DEA) are among the most reactionary and conservative in the US.
This does re-raise the point that one of the surest ways to knock down the intensity of the violence (though unlikely to completely snuff it out) is to decriminalize drugs, taking a lot of the impetus and financing for the cartels out in one fell swoop. The problem there is that this would be a herculean task in a favorable political climate, with a legitimate threat of violence on the border spilling onto US soil is seems just shy of political suicide to even broach the subject.
Thoughts?
Posts
Who's with me?
Balderdash! I say it is time to go back to manifest destiny.
Who the hell would want to own Mexico?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ongoing_conflicts
And it's happening right next to the U.S. It's pretty scary.
nah, then we would have a problem with the rest of central america trying to imigrate to american-mexico.
They are also partly values voters so the Republicans should welcome them.
They wouldn't vote for white guys though so that kills that idea.
We can build Hadrian's Wall II: Electric Boogaloo.
so they won't be able to walk over.... theyll have to take boats.
it would take 50 years to make mexico secure to other people who just want to come in.....
Just Juarez alone is a mess. The past two police chiefs have resigned due to threats by the cartel. The cartel had said they were going to kill police officers every day until the last chief resigned, and they actually went through their threat.
I think last I read there were 6, 000 deaths in Juarez alone for this year, which is mindblowing when you realize that's it's only been a bit over two months.
What we do is we go down to Panama, and set that as the border.
Let's see if illegal immigrants can SWIM ACROSS A RIVER!
Nothing like blowing up some desperate families to stop that shit from happening.
It sure would be if that was the case.
Something tells me their current troubles are still stemming from their first collapse in the 90s when they defaulted on their country debt obligations.
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Or we could build 2 forts, on opposite sides of the river, and have a ton of mercenaries, sentry guns, and snipers to defend it.
Nothing will be able to cross that quagmire.
Oddly enough, when we went at Iraq, one of the first things that crossed my mind was "If we're going to do that we should be doing that in Mexico where the problem is bigger, more immediate, and right fucking there where it's actually our problem today."
Because when its decriminalized they are going to throw away their guns and start picking daisies for the elderly am I right?
Decriminalization of drugs won't fix a damn thing, cartels are a business. If you make it legal then they'll just make bigger pushes, and have even more violent clashes over business and territory than they are already having.
Yes this is exactly what happened when the Prohibition ended.
My uncle died in the great Bud Lite vs. Schnapps gang war of 02.
Because Budweiser and Schnapps were totally going around with Tommy guns shooting up cops and such.
Or you can take away there biggest profit maker and they'll either A) start moving towards being legit, which is a whole new world of Kneecaping and Moe Green specials or they'll become a weak shadow of thesmelves, much like the Mafia is now.
Wait you mean that legit business people replace criminal organizations when shit is legalized? Ho shits I did not know.
Right, just like how ending alcohol prohibition didn't significantly impact American organized crime by effectively dismantling the infrastructure of their most profitable and deepest investment.
Oh, wait.
W...what in the hell?
Have you ever even heard of rum runners? Or, you know, Chicago?
They kinda disappeared around some significant point where something big was changed...maybe legalization of something...who knows.
Or, if we didn't mind the international outcry, mimes.
No need for cruelty.
[/IRsarcasm]
Mexico is a fucked up place. So fuck up that I refuse to go down there even if my family begs me to go. There's no interest in Mexico, cause frankly Mexico haves nothing of value.
It has human beings.
Also Mayan and Aztec ruins
Since when lives are consider valuable? According to the overpopulation thread the best thing that could happen is a worldwide plague that kills 90% of the population.
o_O
Also vast numbers of resources of various kinds.
But I was focusing on why we should actually give a shit.
And agave products.
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I mean it already is. I can barely walk 2 blocks without some 'M13' graffiti tag done by some dumbass kid.