What an irony: In Afghanistan, the U.S. military, in order to achieve a larger strategic victory in Marja, the former Taliban stronghold, is ignoring the vast opium fields in their midst. As this NYT story from yesterday reports: “Marja is a special case right now,” said Cmdr. Jeffrey Eggers, a member of the general’s Strategic…Continue Reading…
Here’s another dispatch from a decades-old war, in which the policy and politics never change. You couldn’t read this kind of story in the country where the war is raging, because of a virtual news blackout, enforced by fear of vicious reprisal. So what does that mean for the people caught in the crossfire? As…Continue Reading…
I’m all for the U.S. improving avenues of cooperation with Mexico, especially if that helps ameliorate the miserable conditions of border communities. But in this post over at Natural Security, Will Rogers overreaches when he suggests that environmental initiatives with Mexico aids U.S. national security interests along the southern border. That can hardly be the…Continue Reading…
I love that The Washington Post has a new blog on Mexico’s drug war, called “Journey Along the Border.” Too bad it’s slated to last a week and half, the duration of the journalistic journey. Guys, the drug war won’t end when you reach Tijuana, so why fold up shop then? Keep the blog going….Continue Reading…
In 2004, I got a small glimpse of the unseen (and sporadically reported) desperation along the rugged Arizona borderlands when I wrote this small piece on Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Nothing’s changed. Yes, billions have since been spent on militarizing the U.S.-Mexico border, but to what end? As this wrenching blog post by Michael…Continue Reading…
This is a ticking time bomb for Mexico, a greater long-term threat to the country’s sociopolitical stability than the drug cartels.
Humans never fail to amaze. When I recently posted about the drug legalization issue and Mexico, I hadn’t yet seen this intriguing column on Tom Tancredo from Sunday’s Denver Post.