The drug war continues to wreak havoc in Mexico

Sometimes I wonder if I have anything new to say about this. The constant litany of articles about the drug war in Mexico are depressing:

• Soldiers beheaded in Mexico, drug war suspected
• Violence Escalates
• At least 21 dead in Mexico prison riot
• Mexico’s deadly drug war takes its toll on children
• 9,000 ‘ordinary people’ flee Mexican drug war
• Mexico’s Drug War Turns Into Terrorism After Grenades
• Drugs kidnap of child shocks US

One of those articles above actually made a connection between the violence now and the violence in the alcohol drug wars, but generally, there is no attempt made at any kind of perspective other than “Isn’t this terrible. Gee, I guess we’d better crack down some more.”
And, of course, the news naturally gets some people worked up …

What‰s worh Going to War For? Iraq – No, not in my opinion. Drug Lords from Mexico that Kidnap little children from their homes, yes this is worth going to war for. This is worth losing the Iraq war. This is worth pulling the troops out of Iraq immediately to protect our borders. Isn‰t this something that we need Federal Troops for.

… somehow unaware that we’re already at war. Have been for decades. That’s what brought us to this mess. That’s what caused this mess.
Scott Morgan makes it clear

If our drug policy made sense, 6-year-old children wouldn‰t be kidnapped in blackmarket business disputes […]
Cole is safe now, thankfully. But as long as the drug war continues, these kinds of things will never stop happening and they won‰t always end peacefully. There‰s a reason Anheuser-Busch and R.J. Reynolds don‰t kidnap children when a retailer is late on a payment.

Unless the news media is willing to do its job and make the historic connections clear, each escalation of violence will continue to be met with a further escalation, and the people, uninformed and uneducated about the economic laws relating to black market economies, will continue to push for more gasoline to be put on the fire.