For the past nine years, we have been knee deep in Middle East conflict. Following 9/11, our forces were deployed to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, and then stretched further with the invasion and rebuilding of Iraq in 2003. These ongoing conflicts have been both costly and burdensome on our Military and our pocketbooks. With brewing conflicts in other regions such as Yemen and Nigeria, and natural disasters becoming an increasing matter of global security, it may be time for us to consider what our military priorities should be going forward.
This will mean making difficult decisions about our long term motives in the Middle East, and those involved have to realize that we must always be ready and willing to use our military power to protect our neighbors, even if it is outside of the scope of our current terror based war. This may be the case with our closest neighbor to the south, Mexico. As our eye has been on the ball with our two current wars overseas, drug cartels have slowly taken over Mexico.
Violence has spread from the border towns into tourist resorts like Acapulco on the Pacific Coast, causing serious security concerns for Americans traveling on vacation, family visits, and business. Maintaining control of our borders has become increasingly difficult as cartels continue to acquire more lethal assault weapons, effectively leaving police in Mexican towns and our Border Patrol defenseless in head to head fights. The situation is steadily declining, and before too long this problem will be more than a travel issue, it will be a matter of life and death for those living on our borders, and for our business partners in Mexico.
Until the cartels see that there is a force more powerful looking to root them out, there will be no end to the current trend towards cartel rule. Though we currently assist with intelligence, is it time to send in the FBI and Special Forces to assist the doomed Mexican security forces? If we wait, do we risk letting the situation get so out of control that it would become necessary to bring the UN and UK into the mix, thus risking turning this into a true international war instead of a mission between the US and Mexico?
These questions surround the larger issue of our military priorities. When does the plight of the citizens of Mexico become as important as that of Iraq or Afghanistan? The cartels have shown that they will not back down to, and are in many cases more powerful than the Mexican Military. Given this fact, are we the only ones that can counter the cartels because of our intelligence community and weaponry systems? There are many questions that need answers. But, as cities in the US become infiltrated by cartel cells, it has become apparent that if we don’t act quickly, we will have a brand new type of war on our hands.
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