America's Backyard Challenge

As I've blogged several times, the Drug War in Mexico should be considered one of the biggest foreign policy issues the United States faces.  The number of people killed in the Mexican Drug Wars has now topped 10,000 and, judging by the headlines this year certainly isn't getting any better.  In February and March the country seemed like it was exploding in violence - for awhile things got pretty scary but have since, thank God, calmed down.  The Mexican army has done a good job in quelling the violence in Ciudad Juarez by occupying the city in March and taking over all police responsabilities with more than 5,000 troops.  Things have quieted down in our area except for a firefight last Sunday between an army patrol and a group of police officers.  Unsurprisingly, the army, with their mounted .50 cals and assault rifles, settled the matter pretty quickly and had six Monterrey-area police officers in custody -  allegedly the officers were working for the cartels.  Imagine the bystanders in that exchange of gunfire - cops vs soldiers - doesn't do much for confidence in the civil authorities, does it?