Our nation, struck deep by terrorist actions on 9/11, continues to dwell on Al Qaida and other Middle Eastern fanatical groups while much closer, just across our southern border, acts of horrendous terror, comparable to those committed in the Middle East, occur on almost a daily basis.
When reporter Daniel Pearl was held and then publically beheaded our nation gasped at the barbaric action committed by the perpetrators. This was an enemy we could loathe. When several contractors were burned and hung from a bridge as a message to the United States, our country shuddered at the incomprehensible actions.
Just after the anniversary of 9/11 two bloggers who used the public media forum to rant against the Mexican Drug Cartels were captured, tortured, mutilated and hung from a pedestrian bridge that crosses from Mexico to Laredo, Texas. These two bloggers, both in their twenties, were hung with a note warning others not to negatively blog against the cartel. The female, nude from the waste up, had her intestines protruding due to the slashes on her stomach while the male was cut so deeply that bone could be viewed.
Barely a yawn escaped the American Public. If this had happened in Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq or even Egypt every news organization would have carried this horrendous act of violence yet because it was Mexico, it barely made the news.
President Calderon has declared war on the drug cartels and the drug cartels have responded with absolute cold-bloodedness and terror inspiring acts of violence. More than 40,000 people have been murdered by the various cartels.
Beheadings are common place now in Mexico. We look at equivalent barbaric actions in the Middle East and are aghast at those actions yet similar horrendous violence is occurring just below our southern border.
We read about police stations being bombed or attacked in the Middle East and pray for the safety of our sons and daughters that are serving in the area yet police stations and officers are being targeted on a regular basis just across our border and we do not equate this with the same gravity.
Rival drug cartels butcher, behead, torture and murder men, women and children on a weekly basis. Police Officers often resign in-mass due to threats from the cartels. If they refuse to resign, their lives are often cut short. Shootouts with the military are prevalent.
The same violence executed by the cartel just across the porous border is mostly absent on the United States side. The U.S. Government continues to beef-up the federal agencies working the border. Texas Governor Rick Perry has sent the Texas Rangers; the National Guard is on-again, off again in presence, yet the Mexican Drug Cartels continue to prosper as their product seeps across the border with only an acceptable amount seized by authorities. Millions and millions of dollars are transported south with our Customs and Border Protection seizing more than $40 million headed southbound.
Interdiction efforts by our authorities will eventually become successful enough to impact the narcotic smuggling enterprises controlled by the Cartels, then the same violence currently ignored across the border could suddenly become apparent on the United States side.
A recent seizure of a rocket launcher, a grenade launcher and C-4 explosives headed south to the cartels sends chills up law enforcements’ spine. The damage that could be done, the message that could be sent to the United States and its respective law enforcement agencies with only a couple rocket launchers is tremendous. Law Enforcement and government offices would be easy targets for such a weapon. Malls, schools and other places where people gathered could become targets for such ruthless killers as those who are involved in the Drug Cartels.
If members of the cartels can behead men and women and leave the bodies with a note attached, if they can mutilate and string up social media bloggers as a message not to negatively blog against the cartel(s), can these same cartel members not target civilians at a mall or a dance or a school just across the border?
If and when this happens, the Mexican Drug Cartels will be declared terrorists and then our war with them will escalate. Their members and the routes their product take are already entrenched within the United States which would prove difficult to dismantle.
When innocents are targeted and murdered with notes ordering our law enforcement to become less effective, will we wilt and retreat hoping the next bombing of a school or mall will not occur?
The horrendous acts of brutality executed by the Drug Cartels south of our border will seep slowly across the border and become the threat we have held our breath and hoped Al Qaida would not fulfill.
Sources:
Examiner.com, Rocket Launcer and C-4 Explosives seized enroute to Mexican Drug Cartel
Examiner.com, Social Media Bloggers killed, mutilated and hung from bridge.