02-06-2024, 01:44 PM
(02-06-2024, 12:50 PM)KillerGoose Wrote: Mexico has deployed their military. The Mexican Naval Infantry Corps (i.e. Marines) fight the cartels throughout the country. They are one of the few branches that haven't been widely corrupted. However, fighting them at a level like this simply won't work, even if the United States becomes involved. It is a failing plan from the beginning. These organizations have massive reserves that range from the citizens in abject poverty to those who glorify what they do. Millions of people. You can find numerous articles detailing firefights between the marines and cartel members that often end in a decisive victory for the Mexican military but it makes no difference. You kill 10, 20 more arrive. It is similar to Vietnam in this sense; you could go through the entire conflict and win every single engagement but still lose the war.
The only way to defeat the cartels or significantly decrease their power would be to remove their main source of revenue, which is drugs. If the United States legalized the sale of hard drugs, cartel finances would be devastated. I think we all know that the chances of that happening are zero.
You're not wrong that drug money fuels the corruption in Mexico. Where you are wrong is how to fix that. Check out the absolute shit show that is Oregon after it decriminalized hard drug use.
https://apnews.com/article/oregon-drugs-decriminalization-pushback-bb209e6ba9835c69f95b093c8ee00279
Oregon’s first-in-the-nation law that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine and other illicit drugs in favor of an emphasis on addiction treatment is facing strong headwinds in the progressive state after an explosion of public drug use fueled by the proliferation of fentanyl and a surge in deaths from opioids, including those of children.
“The inability for people to live their day-to-day life without encountering open-air drug use is so pressing on urban folks’ minds,” said John Horvick, vice president of polling firm DHM Research. “That has very much changed people’s perspective about what they think Measure 110 is.”
I'm not saying legalization of some drugs could work, but legalizing all "hard drugs" is a terrible idea. Heroin and Meth should never be legal due to their extreme addition rate and the damage they cause.
