“Darn right, I would.” In the first GOP debate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unreservedly declared he would send U.S. Special Forces to the border “on day one” to attack incoming drug cartels with authorized lethal force. To say I was shocked would be an understatement; “alarmed” is a better descriptor.
We all know drugs are bad, mkay? We all agree human trafficking is abominable. We all understand a country is only as sovereign as its border is secure. Ron DeSantis and the American people (myself included) have every right to be indignant over the state of our border with Mexico, but we need to recognize knee-jerk violence is not the most strategic answer.
The Presidential hopeful continues to bang the border drum, sending a barrage of fundraising emails and peppering his socials with iterations of the same regularly. His goal is likely to take the issue away from Trump now that President Biden is adding to “Trump’s wall.” Talk about free press and the 45th President already lives rent-free in most of the left’s headspace.
Over the last two months, though, I keep going back to DeSantis’s brazen declaration that he would, in fact, meet violence with violence. You can refresh your memory here:
In the debate aftermath, The Hill quoted Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-Texas):
What happens is somebody popular in their party starts talking about it, and then the other candidates start parroting it. And after time, their base takes it on as a core idea and gets behind it. And then the base starts demanding that every Republican in the country, whether they’re running for president or school board, agrees with this idea. And that’s what gonna happen here. If something doesn’t change, that’s what’s gonna happen here.”
Mark this date on your calendar as the first time I have ever agreed with a Castro.
While it is one thing to use American forces in America against foreign nationals, it is quite another to “reserve the right to operate across the border to secure our territory from Mexican cartel activities.” I’m sorry, but does the Constitution give the President executive privilege outside of the United States? Moreover, does Mexico agree our country has the right to apply force in its land? It’s the same in English and Spanish: no.
Here are five reasons Ron DeSantis’s policy on cartels is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea:
1. It would start a war.
Plain and simple, Congress has not officially declared a war since 1942 but we still had Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Can a President send our military into conflict without Congressional consent? Apparently, the Constitution is merely a suggestion here. If the government sends uniformed warriors into a country with the express intention of destroying property, disrupting economic activity, taking lives and/or prisoners, and imposing one will over another, that is war. Just ask Israel.
2. It would start a war we cannot win.
The United States Military is bound by ethos, standards, processes, and integrity. Drug cartels are not. Of all people, former U.S. Naval officer Lieutenant Commander Ron DeSantis should know that sending rule-followers into a battle where there are no rules is a catastrophe!
Cartels will not hesitate to kill, extort, and use innocent people to keep the drug and human trafficking trade alive. While our fighting forces could compete with that (because they’re that good), bureaucrats clinging to power won’t let them. Hamstring our men and women on the front during a U.S.-directed invasion of Mexico to combat violent vigilantes without rules of engagement, and things are going to get out of hand quickly. Hamas uses innocent civilians as human shields, and so will the cartels. I mean, they’re already using kids on social platforms.
3. It would start a war on U.S. soil that we cannot win.
Of the 11 million people who are in this country illegally, almost half of them are from Mexico. According to the Migration Policy Institute, 5.3 million unauthorized Mexicans are in the U.S.; 67% are from Mexico and Central America. Anyone who has studied authoritarian regimes knows family members are the first pawns to be sacrificed. Cartels leverage relationships to get what they want: see also No. 2.
If we played “Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon, Drug Cartels Edition” with 7.3 million people in this country, I’d bet good money a lot of decent people looking for a better life would become coerced participants in the violence. Legal or not, if the cartels snatch the sister of the woman who lives next door, don’t be surprised if your neighbor pays the cartels a ransom. If the cartels hold a child hostage until his parents sell every last fentanyl pill, guess who is the newest dealer in town? If the cartels need a new location for their latest illegal guns cache and you don’t agree to let them use your house, they’ll murder your parents in front of you.
We should not doubt the drug cartels’ capacity for heinous crimes that rival Hamas, the Taliban, ISIS, and the CCP.
Related: WATCH: Senator Takes Biden Administration and MSM to the Woodshed
4. It would start a war on U.S. soil that we cannot win, especially with an open border.
Texas’s floating barrier and razor wire will be the least of our problems (maybe even one of the better solutions) if we unofficially declare a war on an ungovernable organization with access to several million people in this country. Hundreds of thousands of illegals cannot be bussed out of a war zone into the heartland in good faith — without intense screening, we could not say with certainty that we are not transporting enemy troops.
We already have confirmation that the Border Patrol has caught 151 individuals on the terror watch list at the southern border who entered the country illegally. The cartels are not the only ones who want to infiltrate and destroy America. House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Dr. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) indicates 10,000 or more Chinese nationals, male and of military age, are also coming into the States. Mauritanians are fleeing their western African country for Nicaragua and the U.S., thanks to social media influencers promoting immigration loopholes and smuggler connections. Mauritania has been designated as a Level 3: Reconsider Travel destination due to terrorism and violent crimes.
5. China
It’s no secret that China is directly involved in the production and transport of fentanyl. Drug lords gonna drug lord. And yes, the cartels south of the border are criminal militias, but the Chinese Communist Party is a sleeping dragon we are not ready to poke. While D.C. bureaucrats have been busy pushing D.E.I. initiatives, Chinese officials have been militarizing cyber, nuclear, electronic, artificial intelligence, and foreign relations tools. Official or unofficial Sino forces are not going to ask for anyone’s pronouns before they open fire.
So where are the better ideas?
Did anyone notice Asa Hutchins was not on the last debate stage? I didn’t until I was writing this article. Back in August, though, he said something profound relating to this topic:
We cannot be successful against the cartel unless we bring in Mexico as a partner.
Mexico must be a partner in the fight to eliminate drug cartels. Mexico must also accept the high probability that Beijing will fight back to keep the contraband flowing into our country and the money into their coffers. Are there economic pressures mighty enough to compel Mexico to cooperate with us and defy China? No. Anything we would impose would also negatively impact our economy. Plus, the Mexican president isn’t keen to help us problem-solve anyway, so we’re on our own here.
So, what should we do? Today, right now, we should acknowledge what Rep. Castro said as true and reject the very idea that it is acceptable for any President of the United States to send our military into Mexico, even if it is to neutralize the cartels. Remember, we are not talking about the plan to meet them on our side of the border before apprehending or killing them: we are talking about Ron DeSantis “reserving the right to operate across the border” with military action.
Look at what happens to a country when their enemy infiltrates their borders. The most recent example we have is the Israeli massacres that occurred when Hamas illegally crossed the border from Gaza. Other examples include Russia into Ukraine, Turkey into Syria, the U.S. into Iraq, the U.S. into Afghanistan — where does it end? North Vietnam into South Vietnam, the U.S. into Cuba, Allied countries into Axis countries and Axis countries into Allied countries? By now I’m sure you’re picking up what I’m putting down: invading is not a good idea. Peace and surrender are not natural byproducts of invasion — just ask Poland.
After we take invasion off the table, we have to bring Mexico to the table for a reasonable conversation about sending people, technology, and infrastructure to the border. It is in our best interest to build a functional coalition with as many Central and South American countries as possible. Diplomacy is our best option here, especially if we want to save lives.
Mexico shares close to 2,000 miles of land with us and, together, we support hundreds of billions of dollars of commerce and jobs. DeSantis would do well to lose the bull-in-the-china-shop attitude toward Mexico because the current state of geopolitical affairs is already unstable enough. In the meantime, it would behoove the current President to take advantage of the Mexican President’s desire to come to Washington for talks.
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