When America’s political Right sees their need to foment some ‘concern’ for the less fortunate in political or economic terms, raising the specter Mexico, usually does the job for them. However, facts aside, Mexico poses a serious problem for the Right, since the current president in Mexico is a conservative, and yet, the Right, here in the USA, never “consult” in search of the facts or better yet, the “unassailable facts”.

And which brings me to my ‘need’ to speak out and thus, this post.

Here in Arizona, the news media is all agog over spring break by college students, and the ‘risk’ posed by spending their vacation days at Puerto Penasco or better known as Rocky Point. Of course, the media hype is in keeping with the latest storyline pontificated by the Right. Sadly, this is only the latest in an ongoing series of front-page stories that drives up the rating points for advertisers. Needless to say, this happens every spring and fall.

And now, to the facts of the story line lurking in the political under brush at the national level of politics, sans, economics.

According to the Pentagon and its study, titled, “Joint Operating Environment (Joe 2008)” lays out a variety of scenarios for global threats and potential next wars. Thus, Pakistan and Mexico are rated equally and at the same level for apparent “collapse”. Of course, for someone like me and who has been hearing these stories but in differing manifestations over these many years, is accurately recognized as nothing new and further, when viewed from my perspective, it just comes to mean more ‘scare-mongering’ since the Pentagon has been actively seeking more funding, and this too continues to occur each year, regardless of global threat or potential next wars. And to expect the Pentagon, do to anything less, would be a miracle happening in this modern Age of Fear.

And to quote the JOE 2008:

“The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone.”

And for anyone who does have a thorough familiarity with the internal problems that beset Mexico, understands that guns, drugs, and money, are at the core of Mexico’s border problems. Furthermore, it one looks into Mexico and from within the heartland, then, “jobs” is the primary issue followed by "education" and "union organizing disconnected from a centralized government." Consequently, the Pentagon’s credibility and certitude comes up far short when considering the totality of any “assessment” that should be contained in any Pentagon “study” relative to our good neighbor located South of the Rio Grande.

So let me address the first phenomena of drugs. Simply put, our national demand for illegal drugs does not seem to abate, year after year. And there will always be someone who will respond and address this demand despite the best of efforts by law enforcement from both sides of this geographical border.

As to the second phenomena for the ownership of guns in Mexico, to own a gun requires the permission of the military, and consequently, ownership of military type weapons is not permitted. Of course, the default position is for a Mexican to come to the United States, and after purchasing a weapon, returning to Mexico. Thus, border enforcement inside of Mexico is virtually non-existent, given that border enforcement officials do not do rigorous vehicle inspections, and thusly, buying a gun and transporting it into Mexico, is a “sure thing”.

As to the third phenomena for money, three approaches are practiced, one quite successfully, and the second not quite so successful. As such, a drug criminal will use his ill-gotten gains, purchase a weapon here in the USA, and return to Mexico expeditiously. As to the second mechanism, moving these ill-gotten gains in the form of cash, is also easily accomplished when packed inside the empty standard soap box, and acquired at the local convenience store. In contrast and where it is far more difficult is in taking these ill-gotten gains with the intent of depositing these monies into a bank, either for a checking or savings account. In short, Mexican law requires that all “dollar accounts” must be established and maintained in Mexican banks located on the Northern Border and adjacent to the United States, and thus, readily available for inspection by Mexican bank examiners and done on a periodic basis. And the banks officers also practice what we here in the United States call “due diligence” or “know your customer.”

And given our “demand” for drugs and our viability for owning guns, our cultural phenomena drives this criminal behavior, so when, I find that the Pentagon is desiring to “blame” Mexico, I consider this behavior to be real hypocrisy emanating from our national leadership systemic.

Perhaps, when we here in the United States truly want to take our friendship with Mexico and Mexicans to a much higher level, then we will commence to address our drug addiction and drug abuse under the aegis of public health issues. Until then, seeing, reading, or even hearing of Mexico’s “national collapse” is for me and for all intent and purpose, an ongoing charade for political inexactitude or said more impolitely, intellectual laziness.

Perhaps, my disgust for such ruminations as posited by the Pentagon and its coterie of ‘insiders’, just goes to prove that there is no political will among our Elected and Appointed Officials, who seemed to be obsessed with their own power in a manner that ‘marginalizes’ the public agenda with a vast array of distractions and distortions of our ongoing reality. And without the requisite attention to the ‘need’ seen and felt, both here in the United States and in the Republic of Mexico with an annualized death count of over 5,000 citizens, our friendship with Mexico and Mexicans, will not be improved one iota, beyond the usual banter for rhetorical flourishes found on a daily basis in the political arena.

And finally, by failing to address our drug addiction and drug abuse, we are continuing to welcome the constant meme for “plomo o plata”. This is another way of saying that we are intentionally subjecting ourselves to either “lead or silver” and determined by the drug pushers here in the USA and in Mexico. And yet, we have the votes to protest this historical behavior for intellectual laziness. Now, will we protest, either quietly or loudly?

Jaango