Pubdate: 23 May 2011
Source: The DePaulia (DePaul U, IL Edu)
Contact:  2011 DePaul University
Website: http://www.thedepaulia.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4915
Author: Rachel Metea

THIS IS OUR WAR TOO

After a mass grave's 218th body was discovered in Mexico on May 15, 
Americans buzzed over newspapers' latest headlines: The Terminator's 
sex scandal. Violence in Mexico is as energized as ever and Americans 
have barely batted an eye. It's their war, not mine.

We know of the drug war. We know of the drug cartels, the torture, 
the political assassinations, the mass graves brimming with murder, 
and executions posted on YouTube. This is the drug war we know. This 
is the Mexico we know.

The U.S. is a star player in the drug war. However, when it comes 
time to play an active role in ending the game, the U.S. suddenly 
calls timeout. Time to sit on the sidelines.

Newspaper headlines and public rhetoric call it "Mexico's Drug War." 
Americans have seemingly left themselves out of the equation. 
Mexico's narco-tale is dismissed as simply being corruption-driven. 
But in this war, benign corruption is grossly amplified by America's 
substantial role on both sides of the supply-demand formula.

Americans arm the cartels. More than 20,000 weapons - roughly 87 
percent of the firearms seized by Mexican authorities - have been 
traced to the U.S. over the past five years, according to the Bureau 
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).

Earlier this year, the ATF - the agency responsible for preventing 
U.S. weapons snaking into Mexico - came under fire for allegedly 
selling firearms to known Mexican criminals. Blithely named "Fast and 
Furious," the secret operation aimed to track the smuggling route of 
firearms. But when the guns crossed the border, ATF agents allegedly 
lost track of the breadcrumbs.

And we don't just help supply the drug war; we demand it.

Mexican drug trafficking organizations are estimated to generate 
between $1 and $2 billion annually from exporting marijuana to the 
U.S. That doesn't even include the high volume of methamphetamine, 
cocaine, and other drugs smuggled to eager American consumers.

We aren't giving the drug war the attention it deserves. Since 
President Felipe Calderon declared Mexico's war on drugs almost five 
years ago, more than 35,000 people have been murdered. This is 
essentially equivalent to adding together the total American 
fatalities in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars -- five times.

Through the Merida Initiative, President Obama has thrown $1.4 
billion at the problem. The majority of this money is earmarked for 
Calderon's all-out military strategy, such as training and arming 
"community action programs." These U.S. drug funds seem to be doing 
little more than fire-hosing live ammo into Calderon's roaring cauldron.

As one would expect from a purely military strategy, since the U.S. 
increased funding violence has dramatically spiked. In 2010, Mexico 
suffered its bloodiest year with a 60 percent jump in murders from 
the previous year, according to a new database by the Mexican government.

Last year, President Obama promised to "reduce drug use and the great 
damage it causes" with a new national policy that would focus more on 
prevention and treatment. This never happened.

Mexicans are fed up, the Zapatistas are back in action enraged as 
ever, and many Americans remain apathetic.

The murder of poet Javier Sicilia's son last March sparked thousands 
to march in Mexico's capital on May 8, protesting the war on drugs.

According to The Nation, Sicilia criticized the U.S., telling the 
crowd "Their multimillion-dollar market for drug consumption, their 
banks and businesses that launder money in complicity with ours, 
their arms industry--more lethal than drugs, for being so evident and 
expansionist--whose weapons come into our country, not only 
strengthen criminal groups, but also provide them with an immense 
capacity for carnage."

"The United States has designed a security policy whose logic 
responds fundamentally to its global interests, and Mexico has been 
trapped within it," he said.

America's picture of Mexico is too often broad-brushed as a vivid red 
bloodbath. Mexico is watched like a summer blockbuster where drug 
cartels are the shady characters and corruption is the narrative. We 
have detached Mexico, and consequently fail to accurately assess the 
truth next door.

The majority of the violence takes place not under, but at our noses 
- - the U.S. border - a clear indication that the U.S. has something to 
do with instigating the war.

Last June, the New York Times reported that many universities were 
halting their study abroad programs in Mexico in response to 
drug-related violence.

In the article, Geoffrey Braswell, an anthropology professor gave the 
perfect analogy. During the 1968 Democratic convention, Braswell said 
he would not have considered taking students to Chicago. "But other 
parts of the U.S. were of course safe for travel. Mexico is that way," he said.

Last year I studied in Merida, a city located in a Mexican state with 
a murder rate comparable to that of Wyoming and Montana. Unaware of 
the minimal crime rate, people warned me to "be careful not to get 
kidnapped" and to beware of drug cartels.

I am saddened at how we have so ignorantly distanced ourselves from 
the problem. Instead of instilling political will within the 
government, we have increased motivation for the drug cartels. Many 
journalists and government officials have allowed the cartels to take 
control. They are afraid for their lives.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

Like it or not, this is just as much our war as it is theirs. It is 
time to stop turning a blind-eye to this madness, even if for the 
selfish reason that the extremely long thin border will not much 
longer hold back the overwhelming tsunami of blood. Things fall apart.

If we don't take responsibility for our actions, don't allow the drug 
war to play a critical role in policy discussions, and don't demand a 
comprehensive approach from the government, then blood will only 
continue to spill. As much of this blood is on our hands, I can't 
help but ask: Where is the promised leadership?

Where is our call to action?
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom