Summary
President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming administration are debating the extent of potential U.S. military action against Mexican drug cartels.
Options discussed include targeted airstrikes, cyberattacks, covert operations, and “soft invasions” using special forces. Trump has warned Mexico to curb fentanyl trafficking or face military intervention.
His key appointees, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, support some form of military action, framing cartels as terrorist threats.
Critics fear this could escalate tensions with Mexico and spark significant international controversy.
I hate to admit it, but somehow Ben Shapiro was right. He wrote about this in his terrible, awful, no good, very bad book True Allegiance. Although the reason why that invasion started was due to border crossings. And it wasn’t started by the president but by the governor of Texas.
The book is awful but I recommend listening to Behind the Bastards’ (a podcast) reading of it because it is enlightening.
“But he never got us into any wars!”
Well I wondered how long this would take.
I thought these guys were trying to frame themselves as isolationists.
And the parallels to late 1930’s Germany just keep coming
Invade Mexico for what? Is this one of those “if we make them part of the country, there won’t be a border to cross” type of things?
Edit: Haha I didn’t read they wanted to go after the cartels.
USA can have a little Mexico, as a treat
These morons are gonna roll tanks into downtown Santa Fe while a confused crowd gathers for the parade and Trump in a gold John Wayne helmet orders them to open fire.
The US has been fighting the war in drugs since 1976.
The drugs won.
No, they didn’t. The police, defense contractors, and private prisons won. The drugs are doing their job just fine.
True dat.
Another source close to Trump describes to Rolling Stone what they call a “soft invasion” of Mexico, in which American special forces — not a large theater deployment — would be sent covertly to assassinate cartel leaders.
Oh yeah, that went so well previously, why not try again?
/sWhat show? Was it good?
Narcos Mexico.
I liked it.
What’s USA’s record against insurgents? I know Trump went to the Taliban to make a deal after more than 2 decades fighting them.
He’ll hand over the Mexican government to the Zetas in exchange for some empty promises.
We just elected an attempted insurgent!
If he tries to cut a deal with them it’ll probably include Texas annexation 😬
I wholly support Texas going elsewhere and shutting the fuck up.
Mexico can have Texas back. We should send them a Thank You card for doing so.
I’d be down, love their president and all she’s for.
Not remotely comparable. Different fighters with different experiences and motivations. Fighting next door vs. halfway around the planet changes logistics, uh, a teeny bit. Different US government and soldier motivations.
We’ve never done anything like this, no way to tell what will happen.
Bro…
We didn’t win at the Alamo.
The good guys (the ones opposing slavery) won.
That is true, yes.
Well, except for all the other times we invaded countries in Latin America.
And except for that time we invaded Mexico all the way down to Mexico City.
Well there was that one time, about 212 years ago, and ya’ll had a terrible time about it.
That’s a real braintrust donvict has going there…JFC. And no wonder, given Junior the cokehead is apparently influencing a lot of picks.
Or they could save billions, AND make billions after, just by legalize, tax and regulate it. Once that happens, the cartels will die off on their own. But hey, the defense lobby is really strong… So.
Sorry to break it to you, but cartels are never gonna die off. They’re not something that’s currently happening in Mexico, they’re the backbone of the Mexican economy and have been since the revolution war a hundred years ago.
More context: Cartels, although they weren’t called that back then, are how the revolution war was financed. They basically rolled up into small towns and took everything that wasn’t nailed down —including women— under the pretext that they needed it to “fight for freedom”. When the revolution ended and they had no excuse to ransack villages anymore, they pivoted onto drugs. If drugs are legalized, they’re just gonna pivot to something else. Right now, there’s cartels who barely sell drugs and make most of their money through kidnappings and extortion.
Been screaming that for years, now it’s too late. The cartels got wise and diversified their portfolio. We can no longer pull their teeth by legalizing.
Indeed, FFS, just legalize all of it. The WOSD has been far more harmful than the drugs themselves. But moneyed interests definitely want them illegal.
How long before the cartels leave a pigs head in his bed at Mar-A-Lago (or however that shithole is spelled)?
Mar a Lago, it’s Spanish 🤣
I’d love to see the Mexicans shoot back.