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Is Mexico’s Drug War a Model for the U.S.?
by Jacob G. Hornberger

Throughout the decades-long history of the drug war, its proponents have had a favorite line when confronted with the abject failure of the war: “Well, it really hasn’t been waged at all. If they really fought it hard, we would have won long ago.”

Thus, no matter how many people were incarcerated, no matter how many drug gangs were busted, no matter how many drug dealers were incarcerated, no matter how much property was seized, no many how many raids were conducted, no matter how many searches were made, the answer has always been the same — that they just haven’t really waged the war on drugs viciously enough.

Now, let’s turn our attention to Mexico.

Surely the drug-war proponents won’t say that about Mexico. Right? Surely, they’ll admit that the Mexican government is waging the drug war with ferocity and viciousness. Why, the government is even replacing the police with the military in a valiant attempt to finally and forever win the war on drugs. And just recently Mexico’s Congress enacted a series of laws giving the authorities increased powers over the citizenry, just as America’s Congress has done in the “war on terrorism.”

Yet, what has been the result of Mexico’s attempt to ramp up its efforts to win the war on drugs?

Ever-increasing violence. Ever-increasing murders. Ever-increasing torture. Ever-increasing beheadings. Ever-increasing kidnappings. Ever-increasing military and police budgets. Ever-increasing governmental powers over the citizenry.

In other words, the more ferociously they have waged the war on drugs, the worse the situation has become.

Even the drug-war crowd has got to be a bit stunned by this turn of events. How can it seriously continue arguing for a ramping up of the drug war here in the United States knowing what has happened in Mexico in response to the ramping up of the drug war there?

Yet, don’t be too surprised to see the drug-war crowd nonetheless arguing for a ramping up of the drug war here at home not despite what has occurred in Mexico but because of it. After all, what better way to give federal authorities even more power over the lives and fortunes of the American people than by putting the drug war on the same operational basis as the war on terrorism? In that way, the military could protect the American people here at home from enemy combatants in both the war on drugs and the war on terrorism with torture, round-ups, indefinite detentions, and kangaroo tribunals.

Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. Send him email.