E. Eduardo Castillo, Denver Post, December 15, 2009
U.S. officials delivered five helicopters to Mexico on Tuesday to help the country in its fight against drug cartels.
The aircraft are part of more than $604 million worth of vehicles and equipment that the U.S. plans to give Mexico in the coming months.
“The helicopters that we are handing over today are very important substantively and symbolically in our cooperation, but they are only a part of the chain of many important milestones in meeting these challenges,” said John Brennan, assistant to President Barack Obama for homeland security and counterterrorism.
In addition to the more than $1.1 billion worth of aid the U.S. has pledged to provide Mexico, Brennan said U.S. and Mexican officials are planning new programs to help Mexico professionalize its police forces and strengthen its justice system.
{snip}
The Mexican air force will use the five Bell 412 helicopters for transportation and reconnaissance, officials said.
The helicopters, worth $66 million, were funded by the U.S. government’s $1.4 billion Merida Initiative, which provides resources to help Mexico, Central American nations, the Dominican Republic and Haiti combat drug trafficking.
The funds will pay for equipment such as aircraft and improved law enforcement communications networks as well as technical training to improve justice systems and expand anti-gang programs.
{snip}
When the U.S. Congress approved the first $400 million aid installment in June 2008, more than 4,000 people had died in Mexico’s drug-related violence under Calderon’s watch. Three years later, the death toll stands at more than 14,000.
Original article
(Posted on December 16, 2009)
Comments
If the US really wanted to help out the mexican government, we would destroy their drug networks in this country by rounding up every mexican in this country and forcibly repatriate them back to mexico. Then, militarize our border to prevent them from coming back.
The loss of the drug trade would almost instantly wipe out the power of the drug cartels.
It would do a heck of alot more than that. Our economy would boom from all the money that used to be spent on drugs now being spent on legitimate US goods (or cut from welfare as it is no longer needed).
That’s what the entire immigration issue is about, by the way. Not cheap labor, exactly, but drugs. There is not a single user of cheap mexican labor that couldn’t hire legitimate labor at minimum wage and see almost no difference in their business profitability. These are simply vultures looking to squeeze out a few extra bucks they really don’t need….since the labor is already available.
The real reason these people are here is the drug trade. The mexican government isn’t the only corrupt entity being bought off with drug money.
I have a prediction about one of these helicopters.
The drug gangs will topple the “government,” requisition these helicopters and all the other munitions of the fallen government, hook up with AQ, stuff a bunch of explosives in it, fly it across the border, and ram it into a skyscraper or nuclear power plant near the border.
As long as the Mexican government is weak, I wouldn’t give them anything.
Don’t kid yourself….Mexico is not a poor nation.
#13 on this list of richest nations.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)
It’s entirely possible these aircraft will end up being used to ferry drugs across our border. There have already been several scandals involving Mexican Army units found to be engaging in drug trafficking. The commanders of the Mexican Air Force are probably jealous, that is if they haven’t already gotten in on the action.
Meanwhile, while we’re giving away expensive equipment to the world’s 13th richest country, the British forces in Afghanistan are desperately short of modern equipment especially
They tried to outlaw alcohol, and it didn’t work. People drank even more during Prohibition. That lasted thirteen years before the law was rescinded.
They’ve tried to stop people from taking drugs for over 40 years, and the situation gets even worse every year, just as Prohibition would have had they not made alcohol legal.
The only answer is to legalize drugs and tax them. I doubt that consumption would go up much. The only real difference would be that the cartels would dry up and die, and the prisons would have more than enough space for violent criminals.
If we make it beyond this coming depression without collapsing entirely into anarchy, I believe the governments are going to be forced to legalize drugs.
Do you want to legalize ALL drugs, Q?
To poster # 5
Legalize and tax drugs? Sorry, won’t work in the least. Do you honestly believe that people will not still get drugs off the street from the drug cartels? Do you think paying taxes on drugs will stop the drug cartels? They will only sell their drugs for LESS and still make $$$$$$$. We aren’t going to stop them unless we shut down the borders and shoot to kill anyone trying to cross or fly over it. Drugs coming in from China or anywhere else should be confiscated and then ALL trade from those countries completely BANNED! That includes any immigration from those countries and the complete halt of any foreign aid to those countries. THAT is the only thing that will work. If we do not get hard-nosed with these 3rd world nations then we are doomed. Also to lock up all those in our own government who are in on this and making $$$$ off our misery.
Anyone want to lay odds that within a month those choppers will be ferrying drugs and illegals into the US? A better idea would be for our Border Patrol agents to equip them with mini-guns and PROTECT OUR BORDER!
Has anybody considered…in full…the US military situation in its entirety as it relates to the threat on our border?
What I’m referring to is the many committments our military is involved with around the world, and the fact that if something occurs at home or close to home that will just about put the finishing touches on this collapsing empire. We have troops in so many countries globally I don’t recall the specific number, but, of course the greatest numbers are in South Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan and Europe.
The US military declared recently that the two countries most apt to disintegrate are Mexico and Pakistan. If Pakistan goes the situation in Afghanistan is going to call for a tripling or quadrupling of troops, especially if lawlessnes is the order of the day in Pakistan, and/or the country is taken over by radical jihadists.
We just learned…on this site…. from another news account that the cartels and the Zetas (US trained special forces) are not only into drugs, but they’re tapping into Mexico’s oil pipelines to the tune of about a billion dollars per year, and probably much more. Combined they constitute an army and armament that can be considered the equal of the Mexican military.
Expert opinions on why they haven’t taken over the Mexican government up to now explain that the main players are disunited, but that could change if they decide to move under a unity of purpose. The cartels are growing in strength monthly and are inching into the Southwest US, with some growing activity located now in the heartland of the US.
At the same time this threat is growing south of our border we have a country here in chaos. Tea Partiers, amounting into the tens of millions of people; militias springing up throughout the US, with 100 formed just within the last several months; anti-illegal immigration groups, part of which are the Minutemen, plus other like-minded groups, all falling under the “Patriot” banner, could well amount to nearly 50 million people and they’re growing quickly as the threat grows from this present administration and prevailing conditions.
In the midst of the creation of this hole in the dyke of our weakening empire, the feds have issued a paper warning the following:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/officials-and-experts-warn-of-crash-induced-unrest.html
“Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense Strategy Development” of crash-induced unrest:
“The military must be prepared, the document warned, for a “violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States,” which could be provoked by “unforeseen economic collapse,” “purposeful domestic resistance,” “pervasive public health emergencies” or “loss of functioning political and legal order.” The “widespread civil violence,” the document said, “would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.” “An American government and defense establishment lulled into complacency by a long-secure domestic order would be forced to rapidly divest some or most external security commitments in order to address rapidly expanding human insecurity at home,” it went on. “Under the most extreme circumstances, this might include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States. Further, DoD [the Department of Defense] would be, by necessity, an essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance,” the document read.
“Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair said:
“The global economic crisis … already looms as the most serious one in decades, if not in centuries … Economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they are prolonged for a one- or two-year period,” said Blair. “And instability can loosen the fragile hold that many developing countries have on law and order, which can spill out in dangerous ways into the international community.”***
(Snip)
“The crisis has been ongoing for over a year, and economists are divided over whether and when we could hit bottom. Some even fear that the recession could further deepen and reach the level of the Great Depression. Of course, all of us recall the dramatic political consequences wrought by the economic turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe, the instability, and high levels of violent extremism.”
(Snip)
“Blair made it clear that – while unrest was currently only happening in Europe – he was worried this could happen within the United States.”
(Snip)
“Former national security director Zbigniew Brzezinski warned “there’s going to be growing conflict between the classes and if people are unemployed and really hurting, hell, there could be even riots.”
“The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned that the financial crisis is the highest national security concern for the U.S., and warned that the fallout from the crisis could lead to “greater instability”.
(Snip)
All the above situations are converging at one time. One gets the impression that if just one devestating situation…mentioned above…. developed into a critical one, the entire empire worldwide would fall in a domino effect, much like the economy did during the sub-prime crash, which, of course, isn’t over yet. Which possible catastrophe might be the first falling domino is anybody’s guess, because all of them are on the verge and equally disasterous. If it isn’t Mexico, or North Korea, or Iran, or Pakistan, or one of many other triggering actions, it will likely be the economy collapsing into depression. If any one of these event occurs, the rest of the world….including Mexico…will jump up and challenge the crippled US giant and that in itself will prompt internal chaos within the country.
I’m not a doom and gloom activist, just a realist and my basic reason for writing things like this is to warn peaople to:
BE PREPARED!
I have always remembered a guy who said that the only horrible thing about drugs are the people you buy them from and sell them to. I have to disagree then with the poster who disagreed with Poster #5 about legalizing and taxing them. It WILl work! People would rather walk into a liquor or convience store and get drugs at a retail venue instead of from some swarthy guy on the streets. Their whole weapon is the unavailability of drugs anywhere else. Take that away and the cartels are busted. To turn a phrase.
Posters 5 and 7:
I tend to be somewhere in the middle between the two of you. I do think that someone or some group of people way up on high is making money off the illicit drug trade. The reason there can be so much money in it is because public policy and actual enforcement of said policy on these drugs is at the sweet spot between legal and illegal, so that revenue from drugs is maximized. If it were illegal and enforced all the way, then the risk would be way too high for anyone to make any money. If it were legal, then cocaine and marijuana would simply be more cheap low-margin commodities like corn and wheat, and not be too profitable. The policy and enforcement in place makes distributing and selling those “illegal” drugs illegal in the first place, therefore risky enough to make money. The actual enforcement is just enough to mean it’s risky, but not enough to mean that it’s way too risky.
Like 7, I would have really tight border enforcement. As far as domestic policies go, I would be extremely harsh on the sellers and distributors, and very lenient toward users.
7 — Anonymous wrote at 10:00 AM on December 17:
“Legalize and tax drugs? Sorry, won’t work in the least. Do you honestly believe that people will not still get drugs off the street from the drug cartels?”
Legalizing drugs will put an immediate halt to the biilions of drugs moved worldwide at enormous profits. To argue that a few nickel and dime sales might be going on is no argument at all and VERY naive. The massive shipments will be halted.
“Do you think paying taxes on drugs will stop the drug cartels?”
Who said paying taxes on drugs will stop the cartels? Hahaha. Humorous. It is in taking the profit out of drugs that will IMMEDIATELY put a halt to illicit profits from drug cartels.
And, “no,” I’m sorry, but claiming the cartels will just revert to the business of undercutting the competition is no argument either.
And your idea that enforcement will work? That’s what they have been trying for decades and in case you haven’t noticed the authorities have already LOST the war on drugs, and turning this country into a Gestapo stronghold won’t stop drugs either.
But, let’s wait and see what happens. My bet is that the authorities will be forced into legalizing drugs, just as they did alcohol and gambling, so long as they could make a profit on them. Revenues are dropping precipitously and will continue to do so. Calif. is on the verge of bankruptcy as are many other states, and……. SUPRISE! Guess what? The country is going to plummet further dowardward economically. Count on it.
Legalization is the only way to take the proit out of drugs and neutralize the drug gangs. Anything else is just pure wishful thinking.
U.S. officials delivered five helicopters to Mexico on Tuesday to help the country in its fight against drug cartels.
What makes them think the Mexican government is even TRYING to stop the flow of illegal drugs into America?
The only way to make sure the Mexican government does what we want is through regime change in Mexico .
Let’s face it— tens of thousands of American working men could become colonial soldiers in Mexico (and maybe get their old jobs back) while putting a stop to the drug trade once and for all. And thanks to their hard work, Mexico would actually be a paradise within a generation, like most countries developed by whites.
Think about it.
