Mexico threatens USA? Try again.

"We know very well that the drug traffickers are motivated by the demand for illegal drugs in the United States, that they are armed by the transport of weapons from the United States to Mexico," Secretary of State Clinton said during a news conference with Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa. "We see this as a responsibility to assist the Mexican government and people."

Clinton continued: "our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade."
And she acknowledged that U.S. anti-drug policies have failed, noting that "clearly, what we have been doing has not worked and it is unfair for our incapacity . . . to be creating a situation where people are holding the Mexican government and people responsible."

In other U.S./Mexico news:

A day before Clinton's arrival here, the Obama administration announced that it would send hundreds of additional federal agents and intelligence analysts to the border to target drug cartels and keep the violence that has killed more than 7,000 people in Mexico in the last 15 months from spilling into the United States.

I need to speak my mind on this one, because I was stung this morning to see another Gather posting which opined "no wonder she (Clinton) lost the election", and offered the view that the chaos in Mexico is all "the fault of the drug dealers". Regarding Clinton's statement that USA's insatiable demand for cocaine is causing this mess: no point to disputing that, it is self evident. In a world where nobody buys drugs, there will be no drug dealers. You can reply to our Secretary of State by using the word "duh"- but in that regard, it should be noted that this admission is new territory for high U.S. officials. It's okay to say a self evident thing if nobody else admitted it. Start with the truth, and proceed from there.

If you want to blame Mexicans for shipping drugs here, you are going to have to admit that we are just as guilty for exporting the illegal guns there that they are using to kill each other over a slice of the drug trade pie. It's a partnership, we buy, they sell, we sell, they buy. I visualize millions of Americans glimpsing this on television, and responding with a snide ethnic slur. Gee, hope the chaos won't cross the border. Are you kidding? We created the chaos, just as we created the immigration crisis before it. We were handing out jobs with bigger paychecks than they had ever dreamed of, and not usually checking their ID's real carefully. Would you stay home in an impoverished village under those circumstances?They are not much interested in crossing the border to kill each other- it makes more sense for them to stick to business in the USA- just sell the drugs and go home. If you want to kill a rival, you are not going to do it in Tucson, that could attract unwelcome attention from Gringos. Do the killing back in Ciudad Juarez, amigo.

Our hunger for a snort of coke has not quite turned Mexico into a failed state, but it is nothing to write home about. The rise of the cocaine cartels has resulted in a spirit of lawlessness. See a good looking young woman? Rape her, shoot her, toss the body into a ravine. Need some money? Kidnap a member of a wealthy family, mail his ear to his mom, if the money takes too long to arrive, just knife him and move on to the next family.  There will always be criminals in this world, granted. But to deny our share of responsibility for the mess in Mexico is unacceptable. Clinton spoke the truth. The saddest victims of the drug trade may not even be the users, but rather the innocent people back where the drugs came from who are doomed to live blighted lives.