Rick Perry suggests US military role in Mexico drug war
 

Texas Governor Rick Perry - who is seeking the Republican nomination for US president - has said he would consider sending American troops into Mexico to combat drug-related violence.

Mr Perry was speaking during a campaign appearance in New Hampshire.

"It may require our military in Mexico working in concert with them to kill these drug cartels and keep them off our border," he said.

Such a move would go far beyond current US involvement in Mexico's drugs war.

Governor Perry gave no further details of what sort of possible military intervention he would consider.

"I don't know all the different scenarios that would be out there," he said.

"But I think it is very important for us to work with them to keep that country from failing".

Sovereignty,

After the speech, the White House said it would continue its "historic level of cooperation with Mexico" to protect people on both sides of the border.

The Obama administration currently provides substantial material support to Mexican security forces, as well as close intelligence cooperation.

The US has also deployed National Guard troops to boost border security, and uses pilotless drone aircraft to gather intelligence inside Mexico.

Any deployment of US military forces on Mexican territory would almost certainly be unacceptable to the Mexican authorities.

Mexico lost around half its territory to the US after a war in the 1840s, and has since been very protective of its sovereignty.

The Mexican constitution also places strict limits on foreign intervention.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has been pressing the US to do more to reduce demand for drugs among its citizens and to reduce the flow of weapons from the US to the cartels.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15140560


Note: 2 October 2011 Last updated at 00:37 GMT

And our administration has been allowing guns to walk over there for the last few years. While not directly arming criminals, they have been complicit in weapons traffiking. Perry is riding the fast and furious debacle for all he can and if his handlers are starting to push this angle, then I truly believe the investigation will be gaining more attention in the next few months. Will be very interesting to say the least.

One could argue whether or not a nation so lethally infested and ripped apart by organsied crime indeed is sovereign anymore. To me it looks more like anarchy in the absence of any authority that could claim and defend sovereignity.

I can't say that I have become a fan of Perry over the past weeks since his name continued to pop ub in the media over here. But in fact I have started to consider Mexico to be possibly a failed state, and if it poses a "clear and present danger" to the US - which I think is a view that can be defended due to the drug and crime trafficking - then the US naturally has the right to protect itself by military means, even more so, I think it has the obligation to protect American society and American citizens in the US. whether that would mean mjlitary intervention inside Mexico, or a militarily enforced sealing and isolatiopn of Mexico at the outside borders, is something that must be decided on basis of assessement of the military options and facts that define the current situation.

The US going into a country that doesn't have oil?:k_rofl:

A statement that does not really conform to reality, political moves to win votes for next season,overcome problems yes, but it will not happen, with American military presence, but rather whether there are financial opportunities in the budget, and it's not, but it is obviously in the U.S. interest to stop the drugs, and organized crime, which comes in over the border, Mexico must, in turn, act tougher.

Whatever they do, I wish they (the gubmint) would be a little more heavy handed with those guys. I don't think the US Army could legally do this, but the Nat'l Guard is a different stoy (afaik). Maybe we could hire the North Koreans or the Russians or the East Germans to build\manage a buffer zone.

I hear the Israelis are pretty good at building barriers/walls :03:

Lots of talk to gather support. Not a realisitic option the way its usually talked about. Military forces as a whole are not trained or prepared to do pure law enforcement activities.

As for mexican soveriegnty - we should worry about that only after they decided to start respecting ours. Until then, its a line drawn on the map that has little meaning.

We could invite UN peace keeping forces to the border then all will be well. Lets take a vote and forward it for approval right away.

I agree, I think this is 100% talk. Pre election hot air:doh: How much do we give them in foreign aid? I think we should start deducting from that.

But, their whole political system is corrupt, so who knows.:dead: Maybe they could pay us to help them (Mex gov't:haha:) clean up the problem. Just an idea.

Smurfs in the desert?:haha::har:

Shucks, a third of their population lives here illegally anyways. :salute:

Looking forward to official name change to the Estados Unidos de América.

Si Señor, :O:

Shut down about 100 leftover cold war bases in Europe that really have no function and place them on the border. The only reason these leftover bases exist now is political and good money makers....not for americans of course.

My guess is in about 20 years we'll have a mexican president demanding we all learn spanish as our first language.