Former Mexican President Felipe Calderón Admits Errors in Handling Drug War
Former Mexican President Felipe Calderón lamented the label of the crisis his country faced – and continues to face – between government forces and the country’s drug cartels as a “war†and not a drug strategy. […]
Calderón admitted that his administration failed in clearly communicating his security policy toward drug cartels, according to news agency Agence France-Presse.
Maybe he should have sent a memo.
“An escalation in murders and other violent crimes arose soon after Calderón took office in 2006, when he declared an all-out military blitz on Mexico’s brutal cartels.”
Actually the notion that the war on drugs is handleable is a complete fallacy. All you can do is perpetually mis-handle it — by suggesting it’s worth fighting in the first place.
An earthquake you don’t handle. A tornado? Ditto. But those are natural forces we endure the best we can while they are happening. The war on drugs is a human made disaster that can only be handled by ending it.
I just love it how politicians often admit to mistakes after leaving office. I suppose that’s because there’s a fog of stupidity and corruption surrounding them while they’re in office.
Welcome to the clear air Calderon. Now either work hard to ameliorate your mis-handling — or just get lost.
This is one of the “signature files” I use in aol emails; I think it says things people clearly need to understand:
Many people call the “drug war” a failure but,
“Failure is when you do not meet your goal. The drug war is not a failure as much as a disaster. It has caused damage that would not have happened without it.”
The legitimacy of a law is determined by whether it hurts good people or not, this law DOES hurt good people, millions of good people, therefore, this law is illegitimate.
Any law that criminalizes consensual, victimless behaviors, or imposes any restriction on even one person’s unalienable rights, is absolutely unconstitutional (unless that person has interfered with the unalienable rights of another so that his/her rights have been temporarily restricted as punishment — for assault/murder, kidnapping, theft, fraud or destruction of property). Juries should be fully informed of their right to acquit any defendant who is prosecuted under an unconstitutional/unjust law, but judges won’t inform juries of that right, and the prosecutor, if he learns that a potential juror knows about this right, will do all that is possible to prevent that juror from serving on that jury. Therefore, so many get convicted when it is the law that is in the wrong, not the defendant(s). This long standing right of juries is called jury nullification and you can learn more about it here: http://fija.org/
I am not a religious person but this bit of Biblical wisdom is one everyone should take to heart:
“However, let none of you become as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer OR AS A BUSYBODY IN OTHER PEOPLE’S AFFAIRS.” 1Peter 4:15
The US prohibited drugs to save lives and stop drugs,,killing hundreds of thousands around the world in the process of saving lives and spending trillions of dollars is justified by all those drugs they stopped.
Well, at least Eric got us a memo.
Now what?
The United States underestimates the impact of the Mexico drug war. Historians will be studying this screw-up thousands of years from now, just like they study the inquisitions and witch hunts. Another chapter in human hysteria and opportunism, brought to you by professional idiots, compliments of Big Pharma and the latest plague of neo-colonialists.
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Is 70,000 the true current number? Because I swear it should be north of 80,000 by now. Maybe they’re just plain running out of people to murder?
Here’s a totally off the wall statistic: In World War I the United States suffered 116,516 deaths; which includes 53,402 battle deaths and 63,114 non combat deaths The US Coast Guard lost an additional 192 dead. But I guess that’s not really a fair comparison because the War on (some) drugs is being fought on Mexican soil but World War I wasn’t fought in America. The host countries for World War I had significantly higher number of war related deaths.
I was on my honeymoon in Jalisco in the city of PV in 2010 and their newspapers had pictures that not even U.S. TV news would show . . . remarkable how red ink can show up so well in a common newspaper and how high definition photos can show all the bullet holes in the bodies and vehicles . . . very gory