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Caribbean-Latin America
What Would a War on the Drug Cartels Look Like?
2019-12-02
Here's Kurt
Donald Trump is talking about labeling the Mexican drug cartels that own our failed state neighbor as "terrorist groups," and this is yet another step toward what is increasingly looking to be an inevitable confrontation. They just butchered several American citizens, including kids, which cannot go unanswered. They murder thousands of Americans a year here with their poison, which cannot go unanswered. But are we Americans even able to answer a bunch of pipsqueak thugs anymore? Let’s put aside the question of if we should use our military against Mexico (I discussed it here in 2018, to the consternation of liberals and Fredocon sissies) and look at what might happen if we did escalate.

None of it is good.

It’s not a matter of the prowess of our warriors. Our warriors, unleashed, would lay waste to anything we point them at. But the question is, "Would we ever unleash them? Would we let them do what it takes to achieve the goal of eliminating the cartels?"

Of course not. We haven’t decisively won a real war since World War II (except the Gulf War, unless you accept the arguable premise that it was an early campaign in a still-continuing Iraq conflict). And there’s a reason we don’t win. We don’t truly want to, as demonstrated by our unwillingness to do the hard things required to win. Could you imagine the Democrats siding with America in a war on Mexican drug cartels? If you can, you’re higher than Hoover Biden at a strip club on a Saturday night.

Again, this is not to say whether a war on the Mexican drug cartels is a good or bad idea. Nor is it to say we do not have the combat power to do it ‐ we do. It’s just to say that America is culturally and politically unwilling to do what it takes to win, or to accept the losses that would come with a military campaign against the drug cartels.

...A massive U.S. invasion is unlikely for many reasons, but there would be a temptation to use special ops types to target key cartel personnel and locations. This can be effective in a counterinsurgency, where you are trying to stamp out rebels trying to overthrow the government. But here, the cartels are infiltrated into the government. You can’t kill a few leaders and go home. Mexican society is infected with the gangrene of corruption. A few SEALs smoking some sicarios is a boon to humanity but it doesn’t win the war. More just take over. To cure corruption, you would have to tear down and rebuild Mexican society a la Japan and Germany after World War II. Anybody up for that quagmire? Anyone? Hello?

...The sad fact is that our establishment does not really want to take on the cartels. The failed state next door is a distraction from their real priorities: Ukrainian/Russia tiffs and getting sideways with NATO allies over communist Kurds. Nor do they want to gin up public pressure to take the only action that would devastate the cartels: seriously defending our own border. They want the new voters, they want the cheap labor, and they don’t care how many Mexicans and Americans die to keep them both flowing.
Posted by:g(r)omgoru

#23  Rantburg regulars can tell you I've called for years for a real war on drugs. If you really want to do it on the cheap, offer scalp money, letters of marque and allow them to keep any drug money they are able to loot.

As for the people in the US, you have to go by our legal system. My vote is death for all but the users and they can be flogged publicly to pay their debt.

I have no issue with reducing cartel nations to smoking wastelands, they have more than enough American blood on their hands.
Posted by: Silentbrick   2019-12-02 19:04  

#22   Build the effing wall. Add a moat.
Posted by: Lex   2019-12-02 17:55  

#21  If we just legalize drugs, all the problems go away, he said innocently.

Not just that, I understand the cartels are in the process of controlling the avocado trade; that is fees at checkpoints along transportation routes.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2019-12-02 15:56  

#20  ^ Boba Fetts flying around on fancy camo zapata boards, with RPGs and rotary type MGLs ! I'm all for it too.
Posted by: Dron66046   2019-12-02 15:29  

#19  If we just legalize drugs, all the problems go away, he said innocently.
What's that?
Oh, shut up!

Personally, I prefer Letters of Marque and Reprisal. Cry 'Profit' and unleash the Private Military Contractors!
Posted by: SteveS   2019-12-02 15:17  

#18  But it can be done.

I dunno. So far we can't even build a frickin' wall.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2019-12-02 15:10  

#17  Does this really merit the all-out war that the deaths of some rich cultists is demanding though ? Isn't the cartel empowered and abetted by entrenched agents and politicos within America, given a place in the world by the increasing liberal madness of hollywood morality and dysfunctional euphoria ? I think Trump has gotten some measure of service from Mexico in terms of border control, it would be good to not jeopardize that in a moment of 'tough guy' aggression. The solution may lie elsewhere ? Bear with me a little, please.

If only America could tighten down the domestic front, work toward ousting libtard democrats and academic outfits from their positions, take back conservative control of society.

I think everything is hanging on the next six years. Trump, and we... all need to use every trick in the book and some outside it to discredit, vilify and screw every God-cursed sodding liberal's career; to take this to physical levels if need be, but encourage a nationalist core of American society, while instructing families themselves to fight the menace of addiction. Not by tried before faggot counseling and 'baby why won't you talk to me' shtick, or 'say no' posters. But openly revolting against legislation that outlaws disciplining children, intrusive nanny state controls, and school and college indoctrination and experimentation in everything from ganja to mushrooms chasing 'out of body experiences', the almost coerced dismantling of christian moral education and nationalist ethos. The drug dealer cannot force you at gunpoint to buy the fucking thing once you don't want it.

The Trump could supplement these efforts by replacing every significant DoJ, FBI, BoP appointee to Americans instead of 'African Americans', 'Arab Americans', 'Asian Americans', globalist demagogues and insane cat lady's bluffing their way through the Bar. But he can't do everything for the people. A lot can be accomplished faster, if young republican supporters are willing to place some blind trust in Trump, and sacrifice some liberties and conveniences to get out there and oppose the Democrats at every turn, HK type disobedience for months, maybe years.

The cartels cannot be starved, like countries. They cannot be nuked or carpet bombed because they're in urban locations. You can send out the green berets against them and off a number of them, but ultimately they are corporations, not a cult or militia alone. They shall always have ready customers and their product always in demand, unless the penalty for distributing/taking the drug itself is maximized by customer States themselves. One long standing solution would be to insulate your youth from their product by measures involving everything from brute coercion to punitive action against such things.

For all these things you need absolute power in conservative hands first. No democratic process or miry checks and balances by compromised legislators over the executive.

But it can be done.

Posted by: Dron66046   2019-12-02 13:16  

#16  ...the other side of the war is to allow their customers to all OD. No customer base, no money.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2019-12-02 13:00  

#15  Gonna discover them anyhow - the way Darth described.

Exactly what I'm afraid of. Because the corruption is already so deep, it'll be impossible to stop it peacefully. Might be impossible to stop it at all.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2019-12-02 12:45  

#14  DV is correct, to a point, but go to Nogales and you will see it is already here. It is difficult but very possible to get the cartels with success. For example, go after the money. Then send in the teams to kill everyone that touched it, to include back tellers and couriers. Id the cartel leadership and kill everyone that supports them, postal workers, trash haulers, bank tellers, maids, etc... These folks will get isolated. Then kill them. Post the target lists of all those that support in the papers giving them three days to stop supporting or they will be killed. This process of isolating from the outside in works.
Posted by: 49 Pan   2019-12-02 12:21  

#13  you are likely to discover some very uncomfortable truths

Gonna discover them anyhow - the way Darth described.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2019-12-02 11:55  

#12  I fear you may be right DV.
Posted by: Besoeker   2019-12-02 11:19  

#11  The truth is the violence is heading north. It will be in our streets with full military grade weapons going against our civilian judicial system, just like the fight near the Texas border. It is only a matter of time because we won't stop this shit until it is too late.
Posted by: DarthVader   2019-12-02 10:58  

#10  Just go after their money.

Yeah, right. You know why they won't secure the border? That'd stop the flow of money into the hands of American politicians. Go after that money, follow it, and you are likely to discover some very uncomfortable truths.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2019-12-02 10:46  

#9  Just go after their money.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru PB   2019-12-02 10:08  

#8  I smart war on the cartels would mean targeting the cartel leaders and lt's for assassination. Either using drone strikes or Special Ops. Might add to that dropping flyers on the cartel mansions saying that the mansion will be leveled at x hour on y day and then doing just that.

Don't worry about the economic side, we've tried that for decades without success, but we are really, really, really good at killing people so that's how we should do it. if the cartel's think some other cartel is the one taking them out alls the better.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2019-12-02 09:58  

#7  OML, Silentbrick you are actually describing war.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2019-12-02 09:33  

#6  If they hand it to the military and say destroy, it will be an outstanding victory. ROE is no nukes or chemical weapons, no action inside the US. If it's tied to the cartels, it eats a JDAM. You take cartel money, you are a target. I don't care if the other countries look like a smoking wasteland afterwards. It's not our job to fix them. It is the US job to stop foreign terrorists and invaders from hitting us. No mercy and no quarter.
Posted by: Silentbrick   2019-12-02 09:23  

#5  Well except for Snake Plissken, Besoeker.
Posted by: Mullah Richard   2019-12-02 08:39  

#4  Ref #3: The only invasions would be of inner city complexes.

Likely to never happen. If anything, law enforcement will one day be prohibited from entering such zones.
Posted by: Besoeker   2019-12-02 07:35  

#3  What Would a War on the Drug Cartels Look Like?

It would look like Federal action against street corner drug sellers and 'no-go' zones that local police endure. The only invasions would be of inner city complexes.
Posted by: Skidmark   2019-12-02 07:29  

#2  increased lower class wage costs through increased wage competition is just one of the benefits the establishment gain from subsidising migration.
The other part of the welfare state for the rich is much higher rents.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2019-12-02 04:55  

#1  Ouch. 100% true.

Especially the coda. Our political class wants cheap labor and a lock on latinx votes, both of which are enabled by elimination of border security and tolerance of the failed state on our southern border.
Posted by: Lex   2019-12-02 03:49  

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