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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Former AG Bill Barr calls for US military to fight 'narco-terrorist' cartels in Mexico: 'Like ISIS'
2023-03-04
[FoxNews] Former Attorney General William Barr penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal Thursday advocating for the use of the U.S. military to attack Mexican drug cartels within Mexico's borders.

Barr argued that the Mexican government has allowed fentanyl and other deadly drugs to be shipped into the United States and that, under such circumstances, the U.S. has the right to defend itself.

The article, titled, "The U.S. Must Defeat Mexico’s Drug Cartels", contended that the cartels are a national security threat "more like ISIS than the American mafia" and "America can no longer tolerate narco-terrorist cartels."

He supported legislation introduced by Republican Reps. Dan Crenshaw, Texas, and Michael Waltz, Fla., that would give the president "authority to use the U.S. military against these cartels in Mexico."

"Almost all illicit drugs coming into the U.S. are controlled by the Mexican cartels, principally those based in the states of Sinaloa and Jalisco. These paramilitary organizations use bribery and terror tactics to entrench themselves as essentially states within the state, controlling large areas of Mexico," the former Trump administration attorney general wrote.

Barr noted that the drug supply chain must be attacked directly.

"The head of the snake is in Mexico, and that is where the main thrust of our efforts must be directed," he said, pointing to a joint effort between the U.S. and Columbian governments to take out the cartels in Columbia in the 1990s.

With the Mexican government unable or unwilling to take on the cartels within its borders, Barr made the case that the U.S. must do it.

"Under international law, a government has a duty to ensure that lawless groups don’t use its territory to carry out predations against its neighbors. If a government is unwilling or unable to do so, then the country being harmed has the right to take direct action to eliminate the threat, with or without the host country’s approval," he wrote.

He advocated for "a significant U.S. law-enforcement and intelligence presence, as well as select military capabilities" inside Mexico.
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Posted by:Grinesh Gray9039

#21   Key to this is a vastly heightened deportation process

And all the rest. Well laid out, NoMoreBS.
Posted by: trailing wife   2023-03-04 22:32  

#20  Go away Barr, you are a back-stabber and traitor.
Posted by: JohnQC   2023-03-04 21:26  

#19  Barr-treason
Posted by: Woodrow   2023-03-04 20:20  

#18  #12 frames it rather nicely. The tactical fight is local LE/DA focus, with clear use of what the Fusion Centers created by early DHS intended ( I was in that process for California) giving locals the wider perspective and connectivity linkages to get Order of Battle structure for regional cartel/retail street distribution groups.

The Operational focus has to be the porous border, the vastly under-scrutinized Ports of Entry and commercial importation inspection systems looking at commerce from China and the Middle East, with heavy emphasis on the widespread human smuggling components. Key to this is a vastly heightened deportation process to remove the human infrastructure, criminal gangs being imported to run the retail/wholesale distribution systems.

The strategic theater is military ops in Mexico and Latin America to crush the wholesale manufacturing nodes for fentanyl and other precursors, as well as the C&C leadership in Mexico and perhaps Venezuela and Nicaragua. In this theater we must also focus on interdiction of remittances from illegals, money laundering and frankly, the cartel alliances/business relationships with the CCP. It is at this level we will encounter direct thrat nodes from foreign governments. Crucial to this level of strategic ops has to be our OWN government corruption investigations and ruthless prosecutions. Our own political and business leaders who use the levers of our own nation power to slow or misdirect the protection of our own people in favor of our enemies must be revealed and removed.

This is an existential conflict, asymmetric to traditional military thinking, as political and cultural as it is criminal, but it is just as threatening to our continued existence!
Posted by: NoMoreBS   2023-03-04 12:52  

#17  Anyone who has been in gummint for the last two three decades is part of the problem.
Posted by: M. Murcek    2023-03-04 11:39  

#16  I am for designating the cartels as terrorists as a first step. I mistrust anything coming out of Bart’s pie hole going forward.

He is either trying to stimulate book sales, floating a flawed idea that his masters hope that Trump adopts or he’s crafting John Bolton’s campaign platform. I think the US special forces would be able to take down the cartels.
I don’t trust Miley and his generals with strategy and tactics. Miley just proposed a failed strategy for Ukraine that he seemed to have cribbed from the author of Mein Kampf.
My central point is that I don’t trust Barr. I would steer clear of his proposals as if they were a cartoon of Luckys found in a rice patty hooch just abandoned by Charlie.
Posted by: Super Hose   2023-03-04 11:37  

#15  Christians are supposed to be terrorists.
Posted by: M. Murcek    2023-03-04 11:07  

#14  I know its really difficult, but put a 'terrorist organization' classification on the cartels rather than Christians and concerned parents of school children.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2023-03-04 11:06  

#13  Shut the border and you only have to go after their fiberglas "submarines."
Posted by: M. Murcek    2023-03-04 10:59  

#12  It is a clear and present danger...asymmetric warfare conducted against us by the Chinese with intent to destabilize and ultimately paralyze. It is working wonderfully from their perspective, we even pay them for their efforts.

The FEBA for this war has arrived in a Anytown, US around 8 years ago. Fighting it tactically here doesn't work. The fight needs to be fought where we have an advantage - strategically...hitting the C2 nodes, financial and distribution centers of gravity.

The rub is going to be - how do we get an "lawfare" AUMF passed that is broad enough to prosecute the war that needs to be fought? Current authorities are not sufficient and the DEA is not robust enough.
Posted by: Tennessee   2023-03-04 10:49  

#11  Imagine a Tom Clancy novel where the bad guys win.
Posted by: M. Murcek    2023-03-04 10:18  

#10  Too much cartel money going into too many beltway pockets for any serious movement.
Posted by: M. Murcek    2023-03-04 10:17  

#9  /\ We have a considerable amount of somewhat recent evidence (Iraq-AFG) to support your theory SB. A considerable amount.

*You left one group out, but they're just a few offices down the hall from the Diplomats.
Posted by: Besoeker   2023-03-04 10:13  

#8  Honestly, if JSOC was told that they had free hand with a mandate to destroy the cartels, no nukes allowed, I'd wager in 3 years there wouldn't be much of the cartels left. The way this stuff fails is when we let the lawyers and diplomats have decision making authority.
Posted by: Silentbrick   2023-03-04 10:09  

#7  So, we're going for regime chamge in Mexico now?
Posted by: ed in texas   2023-03-04 10:02  

#6  Another Deep Stater who just won't go away.

Posted by: DooDahMan   2023-03-04 08:47  

#5  I would prefer we get even more serious and fight them like Catholics who want attend Latin Mass or Parents who attend school board meetings and ask questions about in school sexual assaults.
Posted by: Airandee   2023-03-04 08:43  

#4  Under international law...

So the whole Cambodia/Laos thing about the NVA was bogus?
Posted by: Skidmark   2023-03-04 08:23  

#3  Gee Bill, we had someone in the WH that would do something like that, but you were too busy playing 'Game of Thrones' making that impossible.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2023-03-04 07:27  

#2  Clear and Present Danger
Posted by: Frank G   2023-03-04 07:27  

#1  I seriously doubt this will happen. Urban commerce would be ground to a halt.
Posted by: Besoeker   2023-03-04 06:40  

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