President Trump is doing everything he can to get ready for a 2024 Presidential run, and that includes standing behind fellow Republicans looking to fix the problems at the border, as Reps. Michael Waltz (R-FL) and Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) are pushing the proposal for the authorization for military forces to tackle drug cartels. Intending to dismantle and destroy their drug empires, these Reps want to bring the fight to their front door and get it off US land.
When asked about supporting the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) legislation, Trump didn’t hesitate to give it his full endorsement. This supports a previously released video his campaign made back in January. In the clip, he fully supported military action in Mexico to target these drug cartels.
Meanwhile, Waltz and Crenshaw’s proposed AUMF has Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador up in arms over the idea. In response to the action, he has threatened to interfere in US elections and ensure the election of Democrats and the demise of Republicans in response to boots on the ground. In March, he explained, “In addition to being irresponsible, it is an offense to the people of Mexico.”
Oddly enough, Trump takes Obrador as a good person and has vowed to work with him to eliminate the cartels using US military assets if he is president again.
Speaking with Breitbart, he said, “I also have a very good relationship with the President of Mexico. He’s a socialist, but he also happens to be a gentleman. You can’t have everything, right? But he’s a great person. Certainly, I would deal with him. This is an invasion of our country — this isn’t just people walking over. This is an invasion. Many of these are people we do not want in our country. They’re very bad for our country…But this is an invasion of our country. Nope, we will stop it and we will stop it immediately.”
For what it’s worth, Waltz has tried making this sound like it will be a simple request with simple parameters. Vowing to go after specific targets, and not an invasion or broad hits across the country, but with how he references the search for Al Qaeda in the 90s, that was an operational failure. One that ultimately led to 9/11 and another 20 years of hunting terrorists and cost thousands of American lives.
Given the special operations backgrounds of both Waltz and Crenshaw, you would think they would be more logical than this. As the Alphabet boys have previously shown, these cartel networks reach deep and cross borders, even under jails, as in the case of El Chapo.
For these two to try and think we can nail these extractions on Mexican turf against a very mobile but entrenched cartel as we send operatives to chase after its leaders is a futile effort. A great way to blow billions of dollars that serves to do nothing but cut the arm off a starfish. These networks can pivot and adapt at a moment’s notice.
Much like the US military in WWII, these cartel members know the jobs of the men above and below them. They can pivot from a hired gun to running an arm of their network with little disturbance to how the product moves. This business model helped make the mafia so good here in the US decades ago. Unlike with the mob, we don’t know the entrenched knowledge and embedded intel.
The cartel is shockingly more ruthless than the mob ever was, and going toe-to-toe with them is ignorant. While they can’t go nuclear like North Korea could, they also would have zero problems bringing the full weight of their shooters to American soil. You can guarantee they won’t target the areas their drug addicts frequent, either. They will target the well-off and the impactful regions where they can hit us where it hurts us all, the wallet.
Trump has had some great ideas, but going after the cartel would be like going after the Viet Cong, and the difference is they won’t need to cross an ocean to respond.
