CHAOS ON THE US / MEXICO BORDER: DOES ANYONE CARE?

Is anyone paying attention to the events occurring in Mexico near the US border? Mexican troops and police are involved in combat with Mexican drug cartels who are seeking to secure their operations of smuggling drugs, weapons and in some cases, people into America. Nearly every day there is a new story of either police or cartel members being killed in intense fighting. The drug cartels operate openly and freely for the most part. In some cases, as reported yesterday, going as far as to place "help wanted" to attract new "employees". This activity is taking place in many towns along the US and Mexico border and no one, including our government, seems to care. Just this week reports surfaced that Mexican drug cartels are operating paramilitary training camps on the border with Texas. WORLD AT WAR

If al-Qaeda were at the U.S. border kidnapping and decapitating people while circulating videos of its exploits, Americans would be apoplectic. It would mean that terrorists were no longer "over there" in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, but instead right at our doorstep.

For some reason, though, this country doesn't seem terribly alarmed that Mexican drug cartels are kidnapping, torturing and even beheading their victims – and posting videos of it on the Internet. They've established border-area training camps and amassed arsenals of assault rifles, grenades and armor-piercing ammunition.

Mexico has deployed about 22,000 troops and federal agents to major border and coastal zones in the past 15 months, including 2,500 troops and federal agents sent last week to Ciudad Juárez.

That far exceeds the U.S. troop commitment in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. But since this is the war on drugs, our nation seems not to be terribly concerned. We should be. It's time for a change in psychology because this threat is real, it's imminent, and it's happening right next door.

Nearly 200 people have died in Ciudad Juárez this year in a mafia-style turf battle between rival cartels.

After listing several high-profile assassinations of Mexican officials as well as U.S. citizens caught up in the violence, Thomas A. Shannon, an assistant secretary of state, told a congressional panel in February, "We can no longer just warn of this violence spilling over into the United States; we must acknowledge that it has."

For our side of the border, this remains strictly a law enforcement problem and does not require a military response. But we do believe Congress needs to act quickly on President Bush's Mérida Initiative request of $1.4 billion to help Mexico and Central America train police and coordinate programs to fight the cartels. And this country must stop handicapping our neighbors by failing to halt the flow of U.S. weapons and laundered money that fuels these gangs.

Let's face it: Drug gangsters are drawing straight from al-Qaeda's playbook to terrorize the Mexican public. If it's unacceptable overseas, we certainly shouldn't tolerate it next door.

dallasnews.com