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Comment by shareme | Hacker News Reader

What is sad is that US citizens do not understand that this un-civil war has been going on for the past 30 years and we as US citizens have done nothing that has a statistical impact of reversing the damage.

Instead we invade Iraq and Afghanistan based on the political connections of a former Haliburton employee and stockholder.

And if we do not wake up soon.. WWII will be on our doorstep.

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Indeed. I suspect the anti-immigration, anti-drug, and anti-worker policies from large sections of the political landscape have sown the seeds of the destruction of the United States as surely as anything else.

I was reading Herwig Wolfram's "The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples" and he makes an interesting case that the collapse of the Western Empire a thousand years before the collapse of the Eastern Empire was due in large part to undue concentration of wealth in the West. Despite this, most of the book is about the rise of the Goths within the Empire as essentially a non-state armed force.

It occurs to me that the drug cartels are in a similar place to the Goths, although they are arising in neighboring countries rather than our own country. They are, however operating on both sides of the border and so have a tangible presence in US border states. Perhaps these are all similar as well?

I've thought about it too. You guys catch Saddam and Osama, why can't you launch some drones and put a missile trough capo's asses?

I guess our lives and peace are not worth the intervention.

Can you imagine the magnitude of the political shit storm on both sides of the border the first time a US drone operating in Mexican airspace with the blessing of the Mexican government blows up a few Mexican kids?

And unlike Afghanistan or Iraq, Mexico actually matters to the US. They are our #3 trading partner (Canada and China are #1 and #2), even ignoring trade in labor (and trade in drugs).

Messing that up would be foolish.

It is not about firepower. The Mexican army and marines have more than enough resources to kill the Cartel leaders. Almost, every time they have met the Mexican military wins. The problem is finding the leaders. It took 10 years for the U.S to kill Osama bin Laden, because it was hard to find him. The cartel leaders do the same, they are always in the run, it is believed that El Chapo lives in the mountains.

So far, they have captured or killed 24 out of the 37 most wanted drug lords.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mexicos_37_most-wanted_...

Use of drones the U.S. is a done deal courtesy of the recently passed aviation bill.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/us/house-approves-aviation...

WWIII?

Sword Fish

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