Fast and Furious Failure
Over at Huffington Post Canada, Sun News Network producer Miranda Frum points out the many problems with the enforcement of laws against contraband trafficking:
The drug war in Mexico is an American war, the only difference being those fighting and those who are dying happen to almost be exclusively Mexican. So what's the link? Aside from the obvious fact of Americans using and abusing drugs controlled by Mexican cartels, Americans also happen to be arming these same cartels. And not just with petty firearms, but now AK-47s and AR-15s. That's some serious weaponry.
Most recently, there has been the "Fast and Furious" disaster which involved the transfer of some 2,020 firearms to the Sinaloa Drug Cartel (which is also partnered with the ruthless Los Zetas cartel, responsible for a majority of the most violent murders) from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) beginning as early as 2009. The ATF, amongst other liaising agencies, never had a practical plan to track any of the weapons. As soon as the guns fell into the hands of the Sinaloa cartel members, they were deemed lost. A number of those guns havereappeared in violent crime scenes.
Even before Fast and Furious, this past September, American customs agents in Texas seized 30 high powered assault rifles when they searched a car heading into Mexico. This was said to be the largest gun bust at the American-Mexican border this year. This news is significant. But it shouldn't be surprising.
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This drug war shouldn't exclusively be fighting the distribution and selling of drugs. The focus should shift to the elimination of these active cartel thugs. The current war on drugs is fighting for an intangible utopia of a world without drugs. Fighting a tangible enemy is much more effective, and much easier. Fighting the cartels puts a face to the evil. After all, worrying about a shipment of cocaine seems like a waste of time when murder, exploitation and kidnapping are running rampant and turning the current government, who is bravely attempting to thwart these cartels, into an unfunny joke.
Click here to read the full piece.
