Mexico's drug war

[Kapanda]

Noticed not a lot of politics is talked here at tehsandtrap, so anticipated apologies if this is frowned upon.

I can't help but think that the rest of the World has blood on their hands because of this. The reason why drug cartels are powerful is because there is a market out there for drugs, this market is driven underground by laws, and therefore nobody involved in the market can use legitimate systems of regulation, so the whole thing goes primitive ( decapitated heads primitive).

The World has an antiquated, prejudiced view of the drug market, which makes the topic a political minefield. But because of that, scores of people die. If there were formal market regulations in place, people would not die in vain as they are right now.

[sstone8]

My last year in college I did my English paper on the drug war, and I was pretty amazed of what all I found out.

I researched a lot of different sources and saw that a small part of Arizona was taken over by the drug cartel (yes, American soil).  The local law enforcement said they were out-manned and out-gunned and really couldn't do anything about it.  Why hasn't the government (state and federal) done anything about it?  Also, saw that the drug cartel have many, many guns (obviously), but they get 85% (I believe that was the number) from the United States.  They don't just have pistols and semi-automatic assault rifles, they also have anti-aircraft missles (yes, anti-aircraft missles).  That, to me, is pretty intimidating.  The drug cartel are much, much more powerful than our federal government give them credit for.  It really is affecting Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California a lot and in very drastic ways, along with the rest of America, yet the federal government has done literally nothing to help out.  I believe until the entire United States of America are affected the way the four southwest states are nothing will be done.  It will just be looked at as a small problem because it's affecting only four states so they have other things to worry about, but it's still affecting all other states drug-wise.  While TX, NM, AZ, and CA are mainly the only ones seeing all of the violence (which there is A LOT), until other states than just the four encounter it I'm afraid nothing will be done.

[Mr3Wiggle]

Can someone explain to me what the "Fast and Furious" gun running operation is meant to do?  Is it along the lines of "A Clear and Present Danger", where we are outfitting one side to kill off a rival?

[Tuflehundon]

It was supposed to expose "straw buyers" which are people who buy weapons and then sell them illegally. They were supposed to track the weapons and find the big fish who was buying the weapons from the middle men and selling them to the cartels in Mexico. They screwed up and didn't track them though, and the weapons made it into Mexico.

That's about the best I can explain it without getting into the politics of it.

[Kapanda]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-57461204-10391695/a-primer-on-the-fast-and-furious-scandal/

I haven't read it all yet.

First time someone told me of Fast and Furious, thought they were talking about the movie.

[Mr3Wiggle]

Originally Posted by Tuflehundon

It was supposed to expose "straw buyers" which are people who buy weapons and then sell them illegally. They were supposed to track the weapons and find the big fish who was buying the weapons from the middle men and selling them to the cartels in Mexico. They screwed up and didn't track them though, and the weapons made it into Mexico.

That's about the best I can explain it without getting into the politics of it.

Wow, just wow!  Every day I lose more and more faith in the government's abilities.

[Kapanda]

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/06/27/the_fast_and_furious_conspiracy

Saw this on twitter feed. The caption is "In Mexico, it is taken as fact that the US is backing the drug cartels"

tl;dr right now though.

[Mr3Wiggle]

Originally Posted by Kapanda

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/06/27/the_fast_and_furious_conspiracy

Saw this on twitter feed. The caption is "In Mexico, it is taken as fact that the US is backing the drug cartels"

tl;dr right now though.

I wonder how many Mexican policemen have been killed with those weapons?

[dak4n6]

Originally Posted by Tuflehundon

It was supposed to expose "straw buyers" which are people who buy weapons and then sell them illegally. They were supposed to track the weapons and find the big fish who was buying the weapons from the middle men and selling them to the cartels in Mexico. They screwed up and didn't track them though, and the weapons made it into Mexico.

That's about the best I can explain it without getting into the politics of it.

That is correct. It was a bungled ATF undercover project. They simply dropped the ball, but they did NOT do it to purposefully feed weapons to the cartels, as is put forth by NRA and other right wing factions and media sources.