War on drugs

2009

2009-12-25-Lang-JSOC

JSOC and the Mexican drug lords
by Patrick Lang
Sic Semper Tyrannis, 2009-12-25

The Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC)
is a subordinate command of Special Operations Command.
The confusion in naming ought to be straightened out.
JSOC commands the counter-terrorist commando forces.
The Delta force, Navy SEAL Team Six, etc.
There are aviation assets, intellligence collection and fused analysis centers, etc.
This is a very specialized group of forces.
JSOC exists for one reason only.
That is to kill or capture purely terrorist enemies of the United States.
Imagine a SWAT team on a global basis.
JSOC has little relevance to warfare of any other kind.
The people in it do not like to be called “soldiers.”
They like to be called “operators. That’s fine with me.
Over the last seven years these very specialized “operators”
have killed or captured their way through
most of the high value Islamic terrorist targets in Iraq and Afghanistan.
What is left is
warfare against semi-Islamist tribals or politicians and their militias.
Those are suitable targets for
conventional forces, COIN enthusiasts or Green Berets like I once was.
You, know, people who like foreigners as something other than targets.

JSOC appears to be running out of “high value targets,”
in the places where they have been used so successfully.
They can continue in places like Yemen and Somalia
but they should be given something really useful to do.

I suggest that they should be unleashed on the Mexican drug cartels.
Kill or capture. Kill or capture.
Those should be the instructions.
The legal niceties could be “cleaned up” through arrest or execution warrants.
On the other hand, maybe that is not necessary if recent history is a guide.

This is not irony.
These druggies deserve that we should send them “the very best.”

pl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War

[Cf. the next article:
“Mexico weighs options as lawlessness continues to grip Ciudad Juarez”.]

2009-12-27-WP-lawless-in-Ciudad-Juarez

Mexico weighs options as lawlessness continues to grip Ciudad Juarez
By William Booth and Steve Fainaru
Washington Post, 2009-12-27

[An excerpt:]

“There is an almost unanimous consensus in [Ciudad Juarez]
that the strategy hasn’t worked,” said Hugo Almada....

“The most terrifying question that everyone asks is,
‘If the [Mexican] army comes in and can’t control the situation,
what happens to us now?’ ”
Almada said.

Calderón declared Juarez the “tip of the spear”
in the fight against the ultra-violent drug cartels,
and it is here that the Mexican president has most militarized the fight.
Calderón sent
10,000 soldiers and federal agents into the city of 1.3 million
to bolster the local police and replace corrupt or incompetent elements.

...

[Col. Patrick Lang comments on this article here.]

2010

2010-05-04-WP-Robinson-Americans-insatiable-appetite-for-drugs

Border security isn't the problem
By Eugene Robinson
Washington Post Op-Ed, 2010-05-04

...

It should be pointed out
there wouldn’t be any drug-related violence along either side of the border if
Americans would curb their insatiable demand for illegal drugs.


[I couldn’t agree more with Mr. Robinson.
The reason there is so much violence in Mexico is because
the profits in the drug trade are so high.
The reason those profits are so high is that
Americans are willing to spend so much money on illegal drugs.

I haven’t researched this,
and I really don’t have the time, given my other interests, to go into it.
But I am sure the U.S. DEA has some rather good data on
the demographics of America’s illegal drug users.
While some no doubt are ghetto residents (we sometimes read about those),
I suspect there isn’t enough money coming out of the ghetto
to pay for all those drugs.

The authorities seem to have almost infinite interest
in pursuing sex-related crimes, such as, say,
prostitution and massage parlors
(just ask Eliot Spitzer or Larry Craig about that).
At least some of that effort goes into sting operations,
against the Johns who use the prostitutes,
where policewoman pose as prostitutes
in zones where such activity is concentrated,
then arrest any John who solicits sex from them.
No doubt that is what a sizable part of the general population
wants the police to do.

It’s a tragedy, in my opinion, that
there does not seem to be that same general popular support
for going after drug users.
The same sting operations that net customers of prostitutes
could net drug-buyers.
There seems to be no reason why
police departments could not deploy officers posing as drug-dealers,
just waiting to nab that rich guy from Northern Virginia
who’s looking to buy something.

I suspect police departments
would be both willing and able to do exactly that,
but the reason they don’t is that
there would be an outcry
from the liberal segment of the population
against such stings,
claiming “entrapment!”
Well, I ask,
how the hell can you claim a sting against a drug buyer is entrapment,
while you endorse and applaud stings against buyers of sexual services?]