Thursday - March 26, 2009

Doing it wrong, still

President Obama on Tuesday vowed to invest the resources needed to address the threat posed by drug traffickers in Mexico.
“We are going to continue to monitor the situation, and if the steps we have taken do not get the job done, then we will do more,” he told reporters Tuesday night.

He praised the efforts of Mexican President Felipe Calderon to counter drug cartels, which “have gotten completely out of hand,” but said the United States must take further steps, such as ensuring that illegal guns and cash do not flow from north of the Rio Grande to the cartels in Mexico.

“That’s what makes them so dangerous,” he said.

Obama’s remarks came hours after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that the United States is sending hundreds of federal agents and crime-fighting equipment to the border.

In an interview with CNN later Tuesday, she said, “It’s all about border safety and security and making sure that spillover violence does not erupt in our own country.”

The new federal plan, developed by the departments of Justice and Homeland Security, calls for doubling the number of border security task force teams and moving a significant number of other federal agents, equipment and resources to the border. It also involves greater intelligence sharing aimed at cracking down on the flow of money and weapons into Mexico that helps fuel the drug trade, senior administration officials said.

The plan commits $700 million to bolster Mexican law enforcement and crime prevention efforts. The funds will provide, among other things, five new helicopters to increase mobility for the Mexican army and air force as well as new surveillance aircraft for the Mexican navy.

The funds also will support enhanced communications technology for Mexican prosecutors, law enforcement and immigration officials.

The $700 million allocation, meant to assist what administration officials described as an “anti-smuggling effort,” will complement ongoing U.S. aid to Mexico under the Merida initiative: a three-year, $1.4 billion package aimed at helping Mexico fight the drug cartels with law enforcement training, military equipment and improved intelligence cooperation.

The money was allocated last year, but Tuesday’s announcement brought the first details of how some of that money will be spent.

To help strengthen the U.S. side of the border further, the administration also plans to triple the number of Department of Homeland Security intelligence analysts dedicated to stopping Mexican-related violence.

It goes on more, but I can’t stomach any more of it. We’ve got millions of people unemployed in our country. We have an enormous and very porous border. We have lots of factories that can make guns, bullets, uniforms, tents, canteens, boots, binoculars, walkie-talkies, handcuffs, trucks, prison fencing, shovels, and cheap wooden coffins. I think I could find a better way to spend that $1.4 billion.
Hell, at this point, I’m just about ready to say we ought to drop a few dozen nukes on Afghanistan and Pakistan and go home. Spend that money protecting our own country for once.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/26/2009 at 01:06 PM   
Filed Under: • Border Security •  
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