{"id":68921,"date":"2023-09-08T05:55:35","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T09:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=68921"},"modified":"2023-09-03T18:10:13","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T22:10:13","slug":"discussion-war-in-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/09\/discussion-war-in-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"DISCUSSION: War in Mexico?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve been saying, I am all for Ukraine\u2019s resistance to the Russian invasion, but I worry about America\u2019s increasing involvement in that fight, feeling that our current leadership isn\u2019t exercising the caution it needs to.\u00a0 So in considering the different presidential candidates, I\u2019ve appreciated the caution expressed by Trump, DeSantis, and Ramaswamy.<\/p>\n

But these same candidates who oppose America\u2019s involvement in Ukraine and our recent history of getting involved in unwinnable foreign wars, are all gung ho about sending troops and bombers into Mexico, in an attempt to take out the drug lords!<\/p>\n

Others who think that is a good idea are the \u201cneo-conservatives\u201d whose openness to military interventions go back to the Bush administration, namely, Nikki Haley and Asa Hutchinson.\u00a0 So does Christian conservative Tim Scott.\u00a0 So do lots of other Republican lawmakers, who are pushing legislation to define the cartels as \u201cterrorists\u201d subject to our \u201cwar on terrorism.\u201d\u00a0 DeSantis has said he would send special forces units into Mexico on \u201cday one\u201d of his presidency. (See this<\/a> and this<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\n

The reason, of course, is the fentanyl plague, which kills up to 70,000 Americans a year.\u00a0 The cartels are not only flooding the U.S. with the drug, they are helping to smuggle illegal immigrants into our country.\u00a0 They are indeed brutal killers, organized crime at its worst.\u00a0 The U.S. military did help Columbia to defeat their drug cartels, but they did so with the co-operation of the Columbian government, something we don\u2019t have with Mexico.\u00a0 It\u2019s also ironic that the very candidates who rightly insist on the importance of borders and condemn the immigrants who cross into the United States without permission are fine with American troops and planes crossing into Mexico without permission.<\/p>\n

Are the drug lords really \u201cterrorists\u201d in the sense that the members of Al Qaida are?\u00a0 They are selling a product that many Americans are voluntarily buying.\u00a0 Indeed, buying at a time when America is legalizing and decriminalizing other drugs, creating a climate that signals drug use is OK.<\/p>\n

And even if we were successful in wiping out the Mexican drug lords, wouldn\u2019t the fentanyl business just switch to other providers waiting in the wings?\u00a0 The other major supplier already is China<\/a>.\u00a0 Are we going to invade them too?\u00a0 Surely, to stop fentanyl deaths, we need to do something about the demand side of the problem.<\/p>\n

Well, I\u2019ve told you what I think.\u00a0 What do you think about launching a military invasion of a country on our border?\u00a0 Is that wise?\u00a0 And, more broadly, is there any presidential candidate who would make it a priority to keep us out of war?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The very candidates who oppose America’s involvement in Ukraine and our history of getting involved in unwinnable foreign wars, are all gung ho about sending troops and bombers into Mexico, in an attempt to take out the drug lords!\u00a0 Is that wise?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":59751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[600,36,49],"tags":[12691,13835,13838,13841,1434],"class_list":["post-68921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-politics","category-war-2","tag-2024-presidential-campaign","tag-2024-republican-presidential-candidates","tag-fentanyl","tag-mexican-drug-cartels","tag-mexico"],"yoast_head":"\nDISCUSSION: War in Mexico?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The very candidates who oppose America's involvement in Ukraine and our history of getting involved in 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