The war we're losing (surrogate edition)
Dallas Morning News:
Mexico finally is fighting the war on drugs that the U.S. government has demanded for decades: a frontal assault on drug barons, their organizations and their merchandise, using the police and military in concert with U.S. intelligence.[...]
But a rising chorus of voices in Mexico and the U.S. says the real results are record levels of violence, instability and corruption in Mexico, resurgent drug cartels, nearly 200 dead police officers and soldiers, along with millions of wasted dollars in a country where half the population of 105 million is poor. Mexico receives almost no aid from the U.S. government.
And the result in the U.S.? No noticeable drop in the supply of cheap drugs -- and an actual decline in the price of cocaine, according to a new U.N. report. [Emphasis added.]
Says one Mexican political commentator, "If the United States is not going to legalize drugs, then Mexico has to come to terms with the narcos." By this, he means Mexico should return to pretending to fight a war it cannot win. "There were agreements in the past to let 80 percent of the drugs through, to allow some seizures for the Americans and for the media, and there was a lot less violence."
Read the whole, informative thing. (Link requires registration.)
(Thanks to the indispensable Drug War Rant.)