Hot off the press from the Small Wars Journal. I find his view that the violence in Mexico is as severe as that of Afghanistan to be an interesting perspective.
Full PDF: http://www.mccaffreyassociates.com/p...ember_2008.pdf
I'll quote parts of the PDF file I found to be particularly interesting:
Thoughts on the memo? Is Mexico facing an existential threat from narco-terrorists, and what should we be doing to assist them? I have to admit that I'm shocked of my almost complete ignorance of the situation right south of our border -- and spilling over it.
General Barry McCaffrey: Mexico Trip Report
General Barry McCaffrey (USA, Ret.) an Adjunct Professor at West Point, visited Mexico 5-7 December 2008 as part of an International Forum of Intelligence and Security Specialists.
In his report, General McCaffrey notes that drug-related violence in Mexico is as severe as terror-related violence in Afghanistan and calls on the new Administration to urgently focus on the growing security threat to the US southern border.
General Barry McCaffrey (USA, Ret.) an Adjunct Professor at West Point, visited Mexico 5-7 December 2008 as part of an International Forum of Intelligence and Security Specialists.
In his report, General McCaffrey notes that drug-related violence in Mexico is as severe as terror-related violence in Afghanistan and calls on the new Administration to urgently focus on the growing security threat to the US southern border.
I'll quote parts of the PDF file I found to be particularly interesting:
- The proposed U.S. Government spending in support of the Government of Mexico is a drop in the bucket compared to what we have spent in Iraq and Afghanistan (these foreign wars have consumed $700 billion dollars and resulted in 36,000 US military killed and wounded). Yet the stakes in Mexico are enormous. We cannot afford to have a narco state as a neighbor.
- A failure by the Mexican political system to curtail lawlessness and violence could result of a surge of millions of refugees crossing the US border to escape the domestic misery of violence, failed economic policy, poverty, hunger, joblessness, and the mindless cruelty and injustice of a criminal state.
E. Mexico is not confronting dangerous criminality--- it is fighting for survival against narco-terrorism.
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