U.S. Plans Border ‘Surge’ Against Any Drug Wars

U.S. Plans Border ‘Surge’ Against Any Drug Wars – NYTimes.com
The soaring level of violence in Mexico resulting from the drug wars there has led the United States to develop plans for a “surge” of civilian and perhaps even military law enforcement should the bloodshed spread across the border, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday.

Mr. Chertoff said the criminal activity in Mexico, which has caused more than 5,300 deaths in the last year, had long troubled American authorities. But it reached a point last summer, he said, where he ordered specific plans to confront in this country the kind of shootouts and other mayhem that in Mexico have killed members of warring drug cartels, law enforcement officials and bystanders, often not far from the border.

“We completed a contingency plan for border violence, so if we did get a significant spillover, we have a surge — if I may use that word — capability to bring in not only our own assets but even to work with” the Defense Department, Mr. Chertoff said in a telephone interview.

Officials of the Homeland Security Department said the plan called for aircraft, armored vehicles and special teams to converge on border trouble spots, with the size of the force depending on the scale of the problem. Military forces would be called upon if civilian agencies like the Border Patrol and local law enforcement were overwhelmed, but the officials said military involvement was considered unlikely.

Yes, of course, military forces and hardware within our own borders, beating back the warring Mexican Drug Cartels.  That couldn’t have any unintended consequences, could it?  Imagine the fun – armored personel carriers roaming through Tucson, platoons of body-armored troops patrolling El Paso, no-fly zones patrolled by F-16s over Las Cruces – all so we can battle the heavily-armed Mexicans who are fighting over the lucrative trade in bringing marijuana to gringos who want it.  Nothing like a few shootouts on Main Street to liven up the 11-o’clock news.

Or, you could just legalize it, take away 70% of the cartel’s business, and focus those 18,000 border patrol agents on stopping terrorists and illegal immimgration.  That way, the military can do its job outside the country, as the Founding Fathers intended.

People are obviously getting and smoking the Mexican marijuana, else the cartels wouldn’t be so powerful.  Legalization won’t mean those people smoke more pot, nor that more people will smoke pot – but even if they did, wouldn’t you prefer more mellow Americans to military firefights in our cities?