Commentary
-
Our commentary partners will help you reach your own conclusions on complex topics.
Everybody, Peter Zeihan here coming to you from Las Vegas. Today is the seventh of March. And if you’ve been following the news, you knew that there were a few Americans who went down to Mexico to get some tummy-tuck surgery and shortly after they crossed the border, they were assaulted, kidnapped, and some of them have now turned up dead. And so the discussion in Washington is whether or not we should designate cartels in Mexico as terrorist groups and start doing cross-border strikes.
I’m not saying I’ve got a solution to this problem, because I do not. Well, actually, I do. We’ll get to that. But military strikes on Mexico are not, not the solution. It’s not that the cartels are not deserving. I mean, these are people who basically been preying on civilians now for decades, shoving drugs into our system. First cocaine, now fentanyl, and they’re into any number of criminal enterprises and they’re trying to launder their money through other licit sectors in Mexico and the United States, which has made the money go deep and go far. However, we have seen exactly this sort of situation in recent American history. We know exactly where it leads. So during the Afghan war, we discovered that there were militants operating in northwest Pakistan in a place called Northwest Frontier Province, that were launching assaults against American forces and Afghan forces backed by the United States North of the border in Afghanistan, and then they would retreat back south of the border. And so we ended up carrying out a number of military operations on both sides of the border to chase them down.
The problem we rapidly discovered is that Pakistan is a weak state, and they do not control Northwest Frontier Province. And by launching and strike south of the border, we were inflaming local passions of Pakistanis, even if they were not in support of these militant groups. And we ended up weakening the Pakistani state, which made it even easier for these groups to operate. So in this case, strikes across the border just poured fuel on the fire.
If we were to do this in Mexico, two problems. Number one, Mexico is a weaker state than Pakistan. And so anything that inhibits its ability to function would probably make the situation even worse. And second, the most pro-American portions of Mexico are the northern tier of states, where we’d be likely to launch these strikes. So we’d be taking on our regional allies who are not just political allies, but economic partners. Remember that the United States and Mexico are now each other’s largest trading partners. And especially if we decide we want to move away from the Chinese system, we need help with mid-skilled, mid-range manufacturing, and that is a sector in which Mexico absolutely excels; it’s arguably the world leader.
And launching military assaults on what is the location of our most important, most tightly integrated supply chain networks, would be a disaster for aerospace and automotive and manufacturing in general. So I really would encourage you to think otherwise. This is a thorny problem. The solution is not to not get tummy tucks in Mexico, although I would argue that maybe common sense would tell you that you don’t need to do that, anyway. The solution is to stop using so much goddamn cocaine, because as long as we are providing the financial existence of the system, it’s going to persist.
Now this is far too big of a topic to do … for me to do in a single video. So I’m going to be breaking this into a few different topics when we talk about some of the individual cartels and the economics of the drug war and how it has evolved in recent years. So think of this as a starter and in the days to come we’re going to be turning this into a full-on series. So stay tuned. See you soon.
-
Are Russia’s hypersonic missiles too good to be true?
Russia has reportedly used five of its new hypersonic Zircon missiles to target Kyiv since the beginning of 2024. Russia claims that these sea-based missiles, boasting a range of 625 miles and capable of traveling at nine times the speed of sound, are part of its family of “superweapons” aimed at penetrating the U.S. missile…
-
Norway sending F-16s to Ukraine
In recent months, the need for Ukrainian air defenses has grown more urgent. As U.S. aid is unable to pass through Congress, Ukraine’s European allies have been stepping up to provide what they can. Norway is now the latest nation to pledge F-16s to Ukraine, not only to defend Ukrainian airspace, but also for the…
-
Russians targeting civilian emergency crews in Ukraine
Russian forces are applying a brutal tactic in their war on Ukraine. The tactic, “double tap,” includes an initial strike on a specific civilian target of some value, followed by a second strike intentionally designed to kill the emergency first responders, medical staff, firefighters, and other key personnel dispatched to the location of the first…
-
Iranian strike on Israel not intended to provoke regional war
Rising tensions in the Middle East boiled over again on Saturday, April 13, when Iran launched a direct attack against Israel with over 300 combined armed drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. The attack follows decades of simmering conflict between the two nations, amplified most recently by Israel’s invasion of Gaza and a strike on…
-
The trouble with ‘good’ demographics
Declining birth rates throughout much of Western Europe and America, and in other developed nations like Japan, have alarmed social scientists. Concern is most acute in nations where a shrinking workforce will be expected to pay for the rising costs of a much larger retiring population. But on the opposite end of this spectrum, rapid…
Latest Stories
-
More Dems signal willingness to save Johnson from speakership vote
-
NASA worm returns as interest in space grows around the world
-
SF DA seeks restitution for drivers delayed by Golden Gate Bridge protest
-
Mexico disrupts China’s potential plan to infiltrate US EV market
-
Free speech fight after USC cancels valedictorian’s speech
Popular Opinions
-
In addition to the facts, we believe it’s vital to hear perspectives from all sides of the political spectrum.
Latest Opinions
In addition to the facts, we believe it’s vital to hear perspectives from all sides of the political spectrum. We hope these different voices will help you reach your own conclusions.
The opinions published in this section are solely those of the contributors and do not reflect the views of Straight Arrow News.
Latest Commentary
We know it is important to hear from a diverse range of observers on the complex topics we face and believe our commentary partners will help you reach your own conclusions.
The commentaries published in this section are solely those of the contributors and do not reflect the views of Straight Arrow News.
Peter Zeihan
Geopolitical StrategistNorway sending F-16s to Ukraine
Russians targeting civilian emergency crews in Ukraine
Iranian strike on Israel not intended to provoke regional war
Dr. Frank Luntz
Pollster and Political Analyst‘Take the job seriously’: Why Americans are fed up with Congress
‘If we can shrink it, it will stop growing’: Americans talk debt, deficit
‘I don’t think they care’: Undecided voters explain their reasons
Pete Ricketts
U.S. Senator for Nebraska