Pubdate: Thu, 05 Jan 2006
Source: Investor's Business Daily (US)
Copyright: 2006 Investor's Business Daily, Inc
Contact:  http://www.investors.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/682

MEXICO'S BIG WAR

Border: The invasion and rout of an Arizona National Guard station by
Mexican traffickers Wednesday signals that Mexico's fierce new war
against smugglers is spilling over into the U.S. We should have been
prepared.

Not since the days of Pancho Villa has the U.S. fallen to armed
Mexican invaders stealing in and making raids. Unlike in those days,
though, Mexico's government is led by an ally, President Felipe
Calderon, who seems to be working hard to destroy the criminals whose
corrosive presence tempts many Mexicans to seek new lives in the U.S.
illegally.

This attack on the National Guard is part of a much larger war that
Calderon is waging on Mexico's violent criminal syndicates, which
thrive on smuggling drugs and illegal immigrants.

Last week Calderon dispatched 3,000 federal troops to Mexico's
second-worst crime haven, Tijuana -- where traffickers murdered 300
people in 2006 -- in a head-on confrontation with the enemy. This is
Calderon's second dispatch of troops to fight organized criminal
mafias, following a dispatch of 7,200 federal troops into crime-racked
Michoacan state in the south.

The timing of Calderon's move coincided with Wednesday's armed border
attack by bandits on U.S. National Guard troops near Tucson, Ariz. The
U.S. troops are patrolling the border to help spot illegal immigrants
but aren't allowed to shoot. So once attacked, they had no choice but
to retreat.

Yes, we think there's a connection. The governor of Sonora, the
Mexican state on Arizona's border, warned a day earlier that
Calderon's march to retake Tijuana could drive organized criminals
eastward into his state. Turns out, he was right.

In Washington, Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Steven
Robertson agreed that the Arizona border attack may well be spillover
from the Tijuana crackdown.

"It's the way things operate," he said. "Take enforcement one place
and criminal organizations move to other areas."

It's happened before. In the 1980s, the DEA crushed Colombian traffic
rings in Miami and then watched them move into northern Mexico -- where
the drug war is being fought now.

What's astonishing is how ill-prepared the U.S. was for this. It was
publicly announced that Calderon sent 3,000 troops, 21 planes, nine
helicopters and 247 military vehicles into Tijuana last week. He told
Mexican troops to plan for a long offensive.

On our side of the border, National Guardsmen were sent to the border
in a showcase of beefed-up border security. Yet, under the rules of
engagement, they weren't even permitted to fire on armed invaders, for
fear of "militarizing" the border.

Worse, the National Guard won't even say whether they were fired on by
the border thugs. Shouldn't we know this?

This underscores just how serious our border problem is -- and how
unserious politicians seem to be about solving it. From recent
flippant comments by Sen. John McCain about the border fence, to a
California proposal to grant health insurance to children of illegals,
politicians just don't seem to grasp the consequences of their failure
to protect our border.

Al-Qaida terrorists have been eyeing our unfortified border with
interest for some time. They must be looking at this rout of the U.S.
military by mere lowlife Mexican dopers with pure fascination.
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MAP posted-by: Derek