Tres letras really did a bangup job shutting down the Caribbean and making mexico the preferred route. Cartels in Mexico dice gracias pinche gringos

aezmvp said:

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I think you wildly missed the mark on the Mexican government. It's every man for themselves. Honestly you'd probably see a lot of Tom Clancy style reciprocity stuff. I would also sink a couple of Chinese ships headed to the Cartels so deep in the Pacific you would never find them.

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Clear and Present Danger was a story on why we SHOULDNT run clandestine wars in Latin America against drug lords.

The source of the problem isn't Cartels…it's Americans addiction.

They are meeting a demand.

K2-HMFIC said:

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aezmvp said:

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I think you wildly missed the mark on the Mexican government. It's every man for themselves. Honestly you'd probably see a lot of Tom Clancy style reciprocity stuff. I would also sink a couple of Chinese ships headed to the Cartels so deep in the Pacific you would never find them.

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Clear and Present Danger was a story on why we SHOULDNT run clandestine wars in Latin America against drug lords.

The source of the problem isn't Cartels…it's Americans addiction.

They are meeting a demand.

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It is not that simple. Two to tango. By and large, the "demand" is created due to the pushers specifically flooding the market with certain products. Happened with Pablo and cocaine. Happened with fentanyl. Happened with blue heroin. Street users weren't out there demanding fentanyl. But I'm not blaming just the r pushers. And can't blame just the demand though. This is definitely a two way street.

Edit: and again, I'm not saying the demand has no role. But the cartels operate as a business and definitely specifically try to create demand where one was not before. I just can't blame only the demand


https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/mexican-cartels-flood-us-with-cheap-meth/
"The marketing format follows a well-established pattern. By simultaneously increasing the purity and cutting the price, the cartels get people hooked and create a new customer base.

"They're marketing geniuses," said Jack Riley, the agent in charge of the DEA office in Chicago.

When Illinois authorities recently confiscated 1,000 pounds of Mexican marijuana, they found 10 pounds of meth hidden among the pot essentially a free sample for the distributor to give out to drug users, Riley said."

fredfredunderscorefred said:

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It is not that simple. Two to tango. By and large, the "demand" is created due to the pushers specifically flooding the market with certain products. Happened with Pablo and cocaine. Happened with fentanyl. Happened with blue heroin. Street users weren't out there demanding fentanyl. But I'm not blaming just the r pushers. Am not naive enough to just blame the demand though. This is definitely a two way street.

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Yes. almost a 3 way street. The weed heroin switchblade and saturday night special ghettos didn't go out, find, process and smuggle in crack and glocks and fully automatic weaponry. It was brought into them and a market was created.

Buford T. Justice said:

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The cartels would just go to Canada.
I f you're going to do thus, every implication and unintended consequence needs to be understood well in advance.

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At least they would stick out like a sore thumb in Canada, not only skin shade, but they don't like hockey and don't say "eh" normally.

Not a Bot said:

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They will end up killing some women and children. Social media will be in outrage about the racism and evil US government killing innocent people while the cartels do it without any pushback .

200,000 more people will die of fentanyl overdoses.

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god forbid the us military is held to a higher standard than the cartels

There will never be a real war on drugs.

The only way would be to declare a real war.

That means that every drug user is a collaborator and will be put in a prison camp.

Every dealer is committing treason and will be executed.

Military will be put on the border and every person and bit of cargo coming across will be minutely inspected,

Border will be sealed tightly.

Strategic bombing of all enemy points of manufacture, distribution, and channel of transport.


It ain't happening.

A war on the cartels would certainly cut the flow of illegals from central and south America

CrottyKid said:

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Vietnam part 2

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Except the VC isn't operating a ocean away, they are operating right now in every city in Texas

Oh and they have plenty of people to attack soft targets all over the state without pretty much immunity

Quote:

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Oh and they have plenty of people to attack soft targets all over the state without pretty much immunity

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They could.

For a while.

Armed citizens would not put up with it for long.

The initial salvo could be devastating if coordinated correctly

Some sort of mass assault against gatherings or several assault against gatherings across Mexico

Go for people, money, product, and production

There are no shortage of stand ins ready to take over

Cartels are not hindered by conscience or the Geneva convention

It would be ugly. Lotsa of innocent victims.

CanyonAg77 said:

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Quote:

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Oh and they have plenty of people to attack soft targets all over the state without pretty much immunity

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They could.

For a while.

Armed citizens would not put up with it for long.

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You go up against the cartel they come after you and everyone you know. Too many would side with he cartels.

Mexico would be decimated. Cartel greasing wheels is so engrained in everyday culture over there, there would be a substantial economic shock. Not sure where we'd get our drugs, but may turn north to Canada.

It would be cheaper to fund healthcare, build hospitals, rehabs etc.

A war would cost a trillion dollars and not slow down the consumption of drugs at all.

Cartels don't have F15's or nukes so they would get crushed like the Taliban.

Manhattan said:

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It would be cheaper to fund healthcare, build hospitals, rehabs etc.

A war would cost a trillion dollars and not slow down the consumption of drugs at all.

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Yes, but it would not work, because they would have to be funded from now until the end of time. Once they are built they would fall into disrepair and close.

Building something in a poor country is stupid, learn from history. Easier and cheaper to secure the border.

What would it look like?

The total destruction of Mexico

Short of that, you'll never stop it.

In fact, you'll never stop it.

Manhattan said:

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It would be cheaper to fund healthcare, build hospitals, rehabs etc.

A war would cost a trillion dollars and not slow down the consumption of drugs at all.

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Healthcare, hospitals, etc. won't slow down consumption of drugs, either. .

Satellite of Love said:

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Very poorly. We would *****foot around much of it instead of a real war like when we took on the Nazis.

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Two very different types of conflict obviously

We don't have the stomach for it. Sooner or later, they will hang the corpses of American children from bridges.

Logos Stick said:

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Why would the Biden admin go to war with the Mexican cartel? They have the same objectives.

Good grief, wake up.

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Hell, they probably share a bank account too.

Here is the problem with going after the cartels and not finishing them. They have to be annihilated.

If you don't then all of the farmers, ranchers and Sheriffs and other local LE who live all along the border will pay the price. Cartels have lots of patience.

option short side said:

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Satellite of Love said:

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Very poorly. We would *****foot around much of it instead of a real war like when we took on the Nazis.

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Two very different types of conflict obviously

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I don't know. They will need to be completely eradicated and punished so severely that any thought of an attempted resurrection with have them think hell no. We'll have to go Red Army v the Nazis on them.

In less than six hours we could wipe out all of the facilities, homes and kill most of the leadership of just about every cartel. Their whereabouts and where they live isn't a secret but we don't have a president willing to kill them off.

If Mexico fell into sectarian violence or civil war, don't care. Put Constantine wire five miles deep on the border along with land mines and be willing to kill those who some how make it across.

End gun control in Mexico and the trash will eventually be taken out. It will take a long time, several genertions. Self determination, well armed, is the only way.

The cartels are already at war with each other and likely always will be. They have gun battles daily. War from the north would be brutal on them for sure, but could also be fun for awhile. Instead of blasting away at each other, they would probably unite to face a common enemy (us.) But its not gonna happen for many reasons already mentioned here.

The only way to fix their endemic problems is new government, to include revolution and overhaul if necessary.

45-70Ag said:

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In less than six hours we could wipe out all of the facilities, homes and kill most of the leadership of just about every cartel. Their whereabouts and where they live isn't a secret but we don't have a president willing to kill them off.

If Mexico fell into sectarian violence or civil war, don't care. Put Constantine wire five miles deep on the border along with land mines and be willing to kill those who some how make it across.

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If you're going to go after the Mexican cartels, you'll need to start with a certain subdivision in The Woodlands. They're already here.

birdman said:

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We don't have the stomach for it. Sooner or later, they will hang the corpses of American children from bridges.

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Was going to post this exact point. Basically you'd have to evacuate all Americans from Mexico prior to an attack, and watch your back even over here. Their specialty seems to be sending brutal messages to enemies, just like ISIS. Kidnapping, torturing and savagely killing our citizens(women/children/elderly)would be a regular occurrence I assume. They are brutal, evil sobs.

We could take out a bunch of 'em but not close to all of them.

If American ex-pats are living in Mexico at this point, they have figured that threat from the cartels.

Jack Squat 83 said:

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birdman said:

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We don't have the stomach for it. Sooner or later, they will hang the corpses of American children from bridges.

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Was going to post this exact point. Basically you'd have to evacuate all Americans from Mexico prior to an attack, and watch your back even over here. Their specialty seems to be sending brutal messages to enemies, just like ISIS. Kidnapping, torturing and savagely killing our citizens(women/children/elderly)would be a regular occurrence I assume. They are brutal, evil sobs.

We could take out a bunch of 'em but not close to all of them.

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This would snap a majority of Americans out of being ******* very quick imo.

aggiehawg said:

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If American ex-pats are living in Mexico at this point, they have figured that threat from the cartels.

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They've accepted the risk for cheap rent and social media clout.

I have to think if US leadership seriously wanted to wipe cartel leadership out and even take control of the country we could Do so in a month or two. What then tho? It would turn into a quagmire.

Just control our sovereign border like most countries do. You won't stop drug flow nor human trafficking but you'd put a serious choke on it.

Going to "war" with the cartels would be galacticly stupid and serve absolutely no purpose.

pagerman @ work said:

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Going to "war" with the cartels would be galacticly stupid and serve absolutely no purpose.

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Galvanize a voter base around an issue that hits close to home (drug use of family members that they prefer to blame on the cartel). It makes us feel better sending someone else's kids to fight on our behalf.

Quote:

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"Only a fool wants war, but once a war starts then it cannot be fought half-heartedly. It cannot even be fought with regret, but must be waged with a savage joy in defeating the enemy, and it is that savage joy that inspires our bards to write their greatest songs about love and war."

Bernard Cornwell, Excalibur

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The firefights themselves would be more one sided than anything seem to date, as the technology is not comparable. But as OP points out the biggest issues would be:

1) the will to accept even small amounts of casualties
2) the will to face/combat terrorist style responses in the US

An important question is how well do we have cartel assets and cartel leadership mapped out before we start - because they don't wear uniforms and they are going to disburse like cockroaches when the light comes on. Can we hunt the right ones down?

3) next big issue is for any captured alive, do we have the will to Gitmo their asses for at least a couple decades