We know very well that the drug traffickers are motivated by the demand for illegal drugs in the United States, that they are armed by the transport of weapons from the United States to Mexico...our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade...clearly, what we have been doing has not worked and it is unfair for our incapacity . . . to be creating a situation where people are holding the Mexican government and people responsible
Now, on one level Secretary Clinton is absolutely correct. The Mexican drug lords would have little business if there was ABSOLUTELY no demand for these drugs in America. That said, there are two problems with this statement. First, it's never a good idea for any government official to go on foreign soil and then criticize American policies.
The bigger problem is that the statement is wholly without context. America is a country of nearly a half a billion people. It would be nice to envision a country without drugs but that's a utopia. In a country of our size, there will inevitably be plenty of demand for just about everything, illicit drugs included.
There's more here. It has become fashionable among pundits and politicians alike to demonize and condemn the war on drugs. In fact, that's exactly what Secretary Clinton did later in the same speech. Blaming the Mexican drug war on our own failed war on drugs. In fact, there is something our country can do immediately to cut the flow of drugs from Mexico into this country be about 80%. If we put about 50,000 national guard troops to back up the border control, about 80% of all drugs from Mexico would be cut off. If a solid double wide fence that spanned the entire Southern border were built as well, that would cut off even more drugs coming into our country. This is something that neither Secretary Clinton nor her boss have ever had an appetite to do. It's easy to demonize. It's also easy to blame boogeymen like the "war on drugs". What isn't easy is coming up with solutions. That appears to be in short supply in this growing problem.
As far as the trafficking of weapons, given that they have turned a blind eye to the illegal immigration, and even consciously kept "the system" from getting rid of the criminal element that has infiltrated the Nation and set up gangs in the major cities (and prisons), the logistics of buying weapons and sending them south has been greatly facilitated by the Left.
ReplyDeleteConsider flipping the discussion of the post over and applying it to the gun running: If the left hadn't allowed the illegals in without limits, thus creating the demand, they wouldn't have the supply issues to deal with, related to guns. Net result: It is the Left's malfeasance that has help to get us here.