The heck with Iraq, the war we need to watch is just south of us.

There is a tremendous amount of blather on the airwaves about what we should do in Iraq when we should be watching the war waging just south of us in Mexico. I'm not talking about illegal aliens, that has been sooo overdone, the people I'm worried about don't have to worry about crossing the boarder, their credentials are rock solid. In case you haven't figured it out by now, I'm worried about the toll the drug cartels are taking against the people and Government of Mexico. The roughly 28 prominent families that run the drug trade in Mexico have declared open season on anyone who would deny them their access to the valuable U.S. illicit drug market. According to the San Francisco Chronicle (I hate quoting these guys) the death toll in the war against drugs last year topped 2000! In other words, you don't have to travel to Iraq to put your life at risk, just travel south.

This explosion in violence has been largely in response to the crackdown on Government Corruption by the Felipe Calderon Government. Calderon has been doing some major house cleaning in the judicial, police and military forces in an attempt to bring Mexico out of its second class economic status. This is important to us, because the sooner we get Mexico's economy on line, the sooner we will be able to control the boarder and all of the crime that comes with having a porous boarder.

A good source of information on the topic has been Strategic Forecasting Inc. The often have good articles on Mexico's heroic efforts to control corruption. Also keep an eye on the Merida Initiative as it could be the key to our security in this hemisphere.