Language acknowledging a government's inability to control and extend its writ to its border regions is what we have come to expect from Pakistani leaders regarding the Federally Administered Tribal Areas dominated by al-Qaeda and the Taliban along the Afghanistan border. Folks, this is the president of Mexico essentially saying the same thing about Mexico's regions on the American border, dominated by Mexican drug cartels - narco-terrorism that brings its violence (and drugs) into our cities and towns.
To give you an idea of just how serious the situation is, and to put this into perspective, consider the numbers presented in the Washington Post article to those in the Afghanistan war.
Mexico: 6,000+ killed in 2008 narco war
Afghanistan: 8,600 killed in 2008 (UN figure)Mexico: 45,000 Mexican troops deployed
Afghanistan: 38,000 US troops deployedThat should get your attention.
Mexico is a serious problem, transitioning from an immigration problem to a significant physical security threat - one which will only exacerbate the immigration crisis, which contributes to the economic crisis, which impacts budgets, which impacts (always first before all other governmental departments) defense and security. You see where this is going.
With all of the millions and millions of jobs supposedly being created with the recent massive 'stimulus' bill, I'll give you one guess at how many additional Border Patrol agent billets were created. (Hint: It's less than 1.)
Pay attention to Mexico and America's southern border. It should not be an after-thought, even if your government often dismisses the severity of the crisis and risk.
Our enemies love the fact that we are being distracted by an oversold economic crisis.
I don't see this ending well and I'm not talking about the economy.
Speaking of threatening, My Pet Jawa has a related post up.
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