A Side Effect

The Dallas Morning News says Obama is going to have trouble to his south.

President Barack Obama's agenda is already packed to the brim with urgent domestic and international issues. Another item – Mexico – deserves a place high on his list, though it's rarely been apparent from Obama's campaign and post-election public statements that he shares our sense of concern.

Being from Chicago, and having spent the past few years in Washington, it's understandable why he might not have a Mexico-centric view of the world. That could change quickly.

A comprehensive immigration reform initiative looms. Aside from Mexico's status as America's third-largest trading partner and primary source of illegal immigrants, it is the main conduit for illicit drugs entering our country and the biggest customer of U.S. arms smugglers.

Last year, the rate of killings from Mexico's drug violence surpassed those in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The hideous nature of these deaths – beheadings, hangings and torture using acid – competes with the worst that al-Qaeda and the Taliban have inflicted. It is terrorism, and it is being fueled by thousands of U.S.-purchased weapons.

Except terror in Mexico is not fueled by gun smugglers. It is fueled by drug prohibition. The gun smuggling is just a side effect. You know, if you misdiagnose the cause you are going to have trouble curing the disease. Of course that may be exactly the intention of the new administration. To add a gun war to the drug war. Why cure the disease when it can be used as an excuse to bring in more "doctors"?

H/T Suzanne Wills from the Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Cross Posted at Classical Values