Which brings to mind a similar incident about 100 years ago:
"The installation of the Venustiano Carranza regime in Mexico City did not result in lasting tranquility with the United States. Events became so chaotic that the State Department issued a warning to U.S. citizens living in Mexico to leave the country; thousands took the advice.
One of Carranza’s allies, Francisco “Pancho” Villa, turned against the new president, claiming with some reason that Carranza was not making good on his reform pledges. Villa himself was a rascally character, an enormous self-promoter and an occasional champion of the underprivileged. Villa was initially engaged in a struggle on behalf of the government against rival forces. He became the darling of Hollywood filmmakers and U.S. newspapermen by granting open access to his campaigns; some maintained that he actually staged battles for the cameras and the attendant publicity.
Villa's horizons broadened considerably when he began to seek control of the Mexican government for himself; his method was to weaken Carranza by provoking problems with the United States. On January 10, 1916 his forces attacked a group of American mining engineers at Santa Ysabel, killing 18. The Americans had been invited into the area by Carranza for the purpose of reviving a number of abandoned mines.
Villa’s men struck next on March 9, crossing the border to attack Columbus, New Mexico, the home of a small garrison. The town was burned and 17 Americans were killed in the raid. War fever broke out across the United States. Senator Henry F. Ashurst of Arizona suggested that “more grape shot and less grape juice” was needed, a none-too-subtle indictment of the teetotaling secretary of state William Jennings Bryan.
President Wilson abandoned "watchful waiting" and appointed General John J. (“Black Jack”) Pershing to head a punitive force of 12,000 soldiers to locate Villa — dead or alive. Carranza was not enthusiastic about the entry of an American army on to Mexican soil, and became even less so the farther south the soldiers moved. Despite several close calls, Villa always managed to escape the larger and better equipped invaders. An exasperated Pershing cabled Washington, “Villa is everywhere, but Villa is nowhere.”
U.S. History
I'm not saying that we'll be any more effective against the drug cartels than Pershing (a good Missouri boy) was against Villa. But, if we're going to fight a difficult war against a well funded, entrenched enemy that has a significant home field advantage, why not do it in Mexico instead of Afghanistan?
Honestly, I don't care about Afghanistan. Get in, kill the enemy and get out. Bring the troops back home and go to war with the drug cartels, and Mexico itself, if need be. We could build a killing zone one hundred miles into Mexico from our border and tell the Mexican government that if we see anything so much as move in that area we'll bring the whole freakin' power of the U.S. military to bear on it.
Border problem solved. And if Mexico won't get with the program we'll force the issue. We don't have time for this silliness and even more importantly, we cannot tolerate some third rate, self styled Emperor with his private army pushing us around and shooting at our cops or bringing drugs and slaves into the country.
This is going to end in war inside America. Unfortunately, it will be the federal government invading the states that take the matter into their own hands because they've run out of options to defend and protect their citizens.
How in the hell did we get here?
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