Three bodies lie in a Tijuana street during 72 hours of ferocious street battles between drug cartels. Photograph: Sergio OrtizBorder Disorder: Mexico: The Real War Next Door -- Ralph Peters (Commentary)
South of the border, down Mexico way, a new and savage revolution rages just beyond our inspection lanes. After less than five years of fighting, estimates of the dead have reached 22,000.
The rate of killing accelerates each month. And Washington covers its eyes like a kid at a scary movie. Well, the Mexican narco-insurgency, in which well-armed guerrilla forces confront the authority and presence of the state, is our No. 1 security challenge.
The chaos in northern Mexico has far deeper implications for our country than Islamist terror or even an Iranian nuclear capability (as grim as those threats are).
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My Comment: I was a constant traveler to Mexico in the 1980s and 1990s. It was my #1 tourist destination during my winter break .... tequila, rum, and Mexican food coupled with sunshine and beach volleyball .... for me .... Mexico was paradise, especially outside of the tourist areas.
This has not been the case since the early 1990s .... and I have stayed away since then. Crime, government corruption and grinding poverty .... coupled with the rise of the narco trade and the criminal culture that it breeds has killed the Mexico that I learned to love and respect. Now .... I see the same problems that have plunged Mexico into the mess that it is in today slowly creeping into the southern U.S., with cities like Tuscon and Phoenix bearing the brunt of this onslaught.
The only thing that I am surprised about is that only 70% of the people in Arizona favor the state's new immigration law. Considering what is happening .... I expected this total to be closer to 90%. Hmmmm .... give it time .... give it time.