Commentary
On September 14, 2022, I asked, “How is an American death by fentanyl different than death by an enemy bullet or a roadside IED?”
Citing our successes in taking out Osama bin Landen, Qasem Soleimani and Ayman al Zawahiri, I wrote that we have the intelligence capability within our CIA to systematically destroy the Mexican pill labs, one by one.
It occurred to me after reading an expose, “Inside the Mexican Cartel That Rule Fentanyl Smuggling,” written by a team of writers for the Wall Street Journal. If they got an inside look at the pill factories, why couldn’t the CIA or a Special Ops unit?
I suggested that it didn’t have to be done with drone-fired Hellfire missiles. A mysteriously-ignited fire will do.
On November 30, 2022, I applauded Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy Seal, for introducing legislation – “Declaring War on the Cartels Act” – while stating that I didn’t think his plan didn’t go far enough. Sanctioning the Mexican government for its lack of support against the cartels, and blocking the cartel organizations from using U.S. financial institutions, won’t stop the pill production and traffic.
Earlier this year, Florida Republican Rep. Mike Waltz, a combat-decorated Green Beret, appearing on Fox News Channel, said, “We need to go on offense against them,” suggesting the need for “legislation to authorize the use of military force against the cartels.” He cited a plan used to fight drug trafficking in Columbia during the Clinton administration.
Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton was unmercifully attacked for his June 5, 2020 New York Times op-ed in which he stated, “It’s past time that we wage war against the cartels. Not a Washington “war” of tough-sound rhetoric and stern press releases, but a true war that seeks out and destroys our nation’s enemies to the south.
Naturally, no one wants to address authorizing the use of military force. That’s why I suggest the cartels be targeted covertly.
Someone with a backbone
A credible response to our dilemma came this past week from former Attorney General William P. Barr in his Wall Street Journal op-ed, “The U.S. Must Defeat Mexico’s Drug Cartels,” in which he opened with “America can no longer tolerate narco-terrorist cartels.”
Stating that “Mexican cartels have flourished because Mexican administrations haven’t been willing to take them on,” he wrote, “This posture should anger Americans. Under international law, a government has a duty to ensure that lawless groups don’t use its territory to carry out predations against its neighbors.
“If a government is unwilling, or unable to do so, then the country being harmed has the right to take direct action to eliminate the threat, with or without the host country’s approval,” Barr added.
In describing what it will take to defeat the cartels, Barr called for a “significant U.S. law enforcement and intelligence presence, as well as select military capabilities” … requiring that “we confront them primarily as national-security threats, not as a law enforcement matter.”
Barr closed with a plea for American leadership, declaring that “we can’t accept a failed narco-state on our border, providing sanctuary to narco-terrorist groups preying on the American people.”
How long are we going to tolerate the drug deaths of some 100,000 Americans each year? Where’s the outrage of the losses we incurred in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan?
“The time is long past to deal with this outrage decisively,” supporting the proposition put forth by Representatives Crenshaw and Waltz,” said Barr, adding that “this is a necessary step and puts the focus where it must be.”
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
