April 30, 2008 at 08:58:05

The War, Next-door

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By David Glenn Cox (about the author) Page 2 of 2 page(s)

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“A deadly attack on federal intelligence agents in northern Mexico was a botched kidnapping attempt orchestratedby drug traffickers with increasingly advanced counterintelligence capabilities," a state government official said Monday. Natividad Gonzalez, governor of the northern state of Nuevo Leon, said federal intelligence officers were tipped off that alleged members of Mexico's Gulf drug cartel "wanted to kidnap two or three agents" prior to the attack last Tuesday in the state capital of Monterrey. Two officers were killed and two more wounded in the ensuing shootout.

Also last year, there was a reported shootout where drug gangs fired RPG’s at government troops, leaving thirteen dead. This week the BBC reported a shootout in Tijuana: “Gun battles between rival factions of a Mexican drugs cartel have left at least 15 people dead in the city of Tijuana, near the border with the US. Police said all the dead were from the Arellano Felix cartel, which has come under pressure from a rival gang. Two were wearing police uniforms or equipment, but are thought to have been gang members, police say. Drug-related violence is a serious issue across Mexico. Nearly 200 people have been killed in Tijuana this year.”

In 2007, there were almost 3,000 drug killings across Mexico and there have been more than 900 this year. Yet, our Cromwell assures us the surge is working, as Baghdad is now safer from factional fighting than Tijuana. As the death toll in Mexico exceeds Afghanistan, US troops seek to curtail the Afghan poppy harvest and fail to look in their own back yard. A five-hour shootout between rebels and government troops, not a stone's throw from the American border.

“Obsessed with the power of Spain in his youth, Cromwell failed to note the rise of France.”

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I was born and raised in Chicago in a liberal Democratic home my Grandfather was a labor union organizer my Father a Democratic district committeeman my Mother was an election judge. My earliest memories were of passing out Kennedy yard signs from (more...)

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