By Matthew Casey
This morning’s top story comes from Associated Press reporter, Alicia A. Caldwell, and covers the rising numbers of Mexican children killed in the cartel wars taking place south of the U.S. border.
She writes, “Mexican officials say they don’t track the number of child deaths from drug-gang violence. But newspaper tallies find nearly 50 kids have been killed this year — and a code of ethics in which hit men took care to avoid harming children appears to be evaporating.”
Equal to parents checking crime reports about a neighborhood where they are considering buying their first home here in the United States, Mexican parents certainly consider the threat of violence as they make decisions about where to raise their families. Any parent who finds them self caught in a war zone is going to take whatever steps necessary to extract their children from imminent danger. Therefore, regardless of a bad U.S. economy or a law enforcement first approach to immigration, Mexico’s failure to destroy the drug cartels along with our decision to simply not act are factors in immigrants’ decisions to continue to illegally enter the United States.
Caldwell reports that Mexican children also understand the current risks of living in their home nation, “Twelve-year-old Alexia Belen Moreno was afraid living in her father’s house in Ciudad Juarez, where drug cartels are fighting a bloody war. She begged to move in with her mother just across the border in El Paso, Texas. Her parents agreed — but asked her to stay a few more weeks to finish school.
Three days later, Alexia was shot in the head blocks from her home in broad daylight.”
After 40 years of “war” on drugs, where immeasurable amounts of money and resources have been used, how can it be our policy to allow the drug cartels to wage war and murder innocent people so close to U.S. land? Also, if we are serious about implementing a policy to stop illegal immigration, how can the cartels be allowed to continue to exist when the acts of violence they are committing are causing more Mexicans to risk life and limb to illegally enter the United States where there is no longer a job waiting for them?
The “truf” is that if these policies are more than political grandstanding, the time has come for the United States to militarily engage Mexico’s drug cartels. After almost two years in office, and the deaths of 4,000 Mexicans at the hands of the cartels, it is obvious that Mexican President, Felipe Calderon (PAN) can not be relied upon to handle the situation. The fact is that he is a puppet of Mexico’s various financial interests (including the cartels) whose only goal is to continue to consolidate power and wealth for their own benefit.
So maybe, instead of preparing to attack Iran, who the last time I checked sits on the other side of the world and does not have the technological capability to attack us in our own country, we should instead point the laser on our national automatic rifle between the eyes of the cartels whose business and accompanying actions are affecting us here in the United States. If we do, maybe Mexican children like Alexia Belen Moreno will grow up and revolt against Mexico’s aristocratic society, work to bring about reforms that provide opportunities to all Mexican citizens and help bring an end to both drug smuggling and illegal immigration.