The terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India last week shocked South Asia and the world. Militants, trained in Pakistan, managed to surreptitiously enter the financial center of India by sea in small boats. Upon their arrival, they proceeded to conduct violent raids across ten sites and murder nearly 200 innocent civilians..
As the media turned to 24/7 coverage of the tragic events, acts of terrorism were occurring just across the US border and received virtually no attention.
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In Tijuana, Mexico, a short drive from San Diego, 37 people fell victim to the latest round of battles between the Mexican military and armed thugs of the criminal underworld. What is at stake? In Northern corridor of Mexico, a 1 billion dollar trade flourishes among rival drug cartels. Since the violence has claimed more lives than the total number that perished on 9/11 (4,500 to nearly 3,000 killed), it is time for the US government, soon to be led by President Obama, to consider intervention. As opposed to the unilateralist course taken by President Bush in Iraq, a joint-operation involving intelligence teams and collaborative police work from both nations must be carefully considered.
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Woodrow Wilson and Mexico, 1913-1917
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A Princeton academic and scholar, who became president in 1913, was taught a hard lesson at the hands of Mexico in the early half of the 20th century. When Victoriano Huerta came to power in a bloody coup, Wilson was outraged by the brutal methods employed to seize the state. Rather than recognize the new Mexican government, he boldly funneled weapons to Constitutionalists, Huerta's opponents, to destabilize the regime. In response to Wilson's meddling across the border, Huerta became provocative. A coterie of US seamen, on leave in Tampico, were picked up by Mexican authorities for violating standards of public behavior. Whether a few of the sailors were drunk or the local police were overly authoritarian - or both - still remains in dispute. More importantly, Wilson used the 'Tampico Incident' to raise the stakes in his ideological battle against hemispheric tyranny. Aside from demanding the release of the US military personnel, Wilson insisted that Huerta apologize and supinely salute the flag of the United States in public. Needless to say, Huerta did not dignify Wilson's audacious requests.
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An indignant Wilson would not or could not move past the perceived affront to international law and American sovereignty, and he decided to dispatch a contingent of Marines to Vera Cruz to punitively close down Mexico's most economically vital port. Nationalist sentiment rose quickly, and tensions mounted. Soon, fighting between Mexican and American forces broke out around the city. After losing 18 soldiers to the conflict, Wilson then tried diplomacy by asking for multilateral negotiations with Argentina, Brazil and Chile. After some deliberation, Huerta was forced from power and the Constitutionalist General Venustiano Carranza took the reins of government. He, however, proved to be corrupt as well and considered an illegitimate American puppet by a large segment of the population.
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A popular leader, Pancho Villa (pictured), appeared and rallied much of rural and small town Mexico against Wilson's political and military political machinations. In order to provoke its old foe in the Mexican War of 1846-48 into a larger conflict, Villa crossed the border and attacked Columbus, New Mexico and gunned down 19 Americans before quickly retreating. Wilson and his nation were shell-shocked. How dare Mexico have the temerity to launch and invasion on US soil?! Wilson responded reflexively as Villa hoped and sent 5,000 Marines under General John J. Pershing to capture or kill Villa. Despite thrusting 300 miles into Mexican territory, Pershing failed in his objective and US-Mexican relations normalized to a large extent through diplomacy on the eve of the American entry into WWI.
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Embracing A New 'Good Neighbor Policy'
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Although the economy and the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan respectively are rightly imperative on the Obama agenda, the new president needs to review the transnational threat posed by the drug cartels on the US-Mexico border in short order. Instead of sending members of the armed forces to the area to begin a new joint-operation as a first step, President Obama ought to send a fact-finding delegation to Mexico City to assess how the US can assist Mexican law enforcement in ending the tyranny of organized crime in the border areas. Rather than use a heavy-handed, Wilsonian approach, Obama would be well-served to follow in the footsteps of FDR and use the issue to launch a 21st century 'Good Neighbor Policy'. Undoubtedly, Mexico would welcome a new era of cooperation from Washington to resolve numerous outstanding problems - including border security, immigration and crime. As Theodore Roosevelt famously once said, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick'. Indeed, the US has a rare opportunity to recast US-Mexican relations as two inescapably interlinked allies fighting for the common causes of peace, prosperity and security. In its approach, Washington must use all the diplomatic tools of statecraft prior to committing any special operations forces to the region.
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The war on the US-Mexico border deserves more attention from both the media and policymakers. If the US fails to take action to quell the anarchy, a generation of American and Mexican citizens could be lost to a culture of lawlessness and retribution.
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J Roquen