Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Iván Archivaldo Guzmán recently evaded capture by Mexican police by using escape tactics that he learned from his father Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. The Journal described Iván as “Mexico’s Most Wanted Drug Kingpin.”
But wait a minute! I thought that when U.S. officials recently sentenced El Chapo himself to life in a U.S. prison, the war on drugs was supposed to have been won. Alas, apparently not. It turns out that El Chapo has several sons who took over the family drug business.
Darn! And here I thought that the drug war was finally over. Who would have thought that the busting of one big drug lord only means that new drug lords are there to take their place? Gosh, so does that mean that if officials capture or kill all the Chapitos, the drug war will finally be over? If you believe that, I’ve got a nice bridge across the Rio Grande I’d like to sell you.
President Trump knows that the drug war is a long way from being over, no matter how many Chapitos are killed or captured. Trump now wants to use military force against drug cartels inside Mexico. He says the drug dealers are more than drug dealers. He says there are also “terrorists.” So, he wants to kill them by dropping U.S. bombs on them, firing missiles at them, or using U.S. troops to shoot them — inside Mexico. Trump obviously feels that by winning the war on drugs in Mexico, he will be winning the war on drugs here at home.
Unfortunately for Trump, however, when he asked Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum for permission to use U.S. military force inside Mexico, she said no. That must have undoubtedly surprised Trump, given that he has been praising her for several months and even cut her some slack on his tariff campaign. In fact, Trump was so miffed over Sheinbaum’s rejection of his request that he responded by suggesting that she was just scared of the drug cartels.
However, it’s not difficult to understand why Sheinbaum has rejected Trump’s request.
For one thing, Trump’s request is a variation of “I’m from the federal government and I’m here to help you.” Who believes that one? Not anyone in Mexico, including Sheinbaum.
Another thing to consider is that if U.S. troops enter Mexico ostensibly to combat the drug cartels, there is a good possibility that they will never leave. After all, aren’t there still U.S. troops in Iraq? Indeed, aren’t there post-World War II troops still in Germany? Why would Mexico want a permanent occupation by the U.S. national-security establishment? Would Americans want a permanent occupation of the United States by the Mexican army?
A third thing to consider is that the U.S. government hasn’t exactly done a great job in smashing its own illicit drug distributors here inside the United States. After all, if it had done so, U.S. officials could have declared victory and an end to the drug war. Instead, implicitly acknowledging defeat domestically, they now feel that they need to go into Mexico to win the drug war over there. One can understand why Mexico would question the competence of U.S. officials to win the war on drugs in Mexico when it can’t even win the war on drugs inside the United States.
Something else to consider is all of the innocent people who would be killed in a U.S. military campaign against Mexican drug cartels. Remember: U.S. officials don’t exactly put a high value on the lives of Mexicans. After all, isn’t that one of the countries that U.S. officials say is filled with rapists, murderers, thieves, and robbers who are invading the United States? Given such, I can’t imagine that U.S. officials are going to be very upset about the large number of Mexican citizens who would be killed in a U.S. military campaign against the drug cartels.
Finally, based on what happened in the Mexican War, one can understand why Sheinbaum and the Mexican people would be a bit skittish about permitting a U.S. invasion of their country. When the U.S. government provoked that war, U.S. officials used the war to steal the entire northern half of Mexico. Who’s to say that the U.S. government wouldn’t do the same thing today — after forcing all Mexican citizens to move south, of course, to avoid having them become U.S. citizens.
As President Trump has pointed out, Sheinbaum is a very sharp person. She is smart to say no to Trump’s request to invade and bomb her country in the name of winning the ongoing, never-ending, perpetual immoral and destructive war on drugs.
Reprinted with permission from Future of Freedom Foundation.
