Whack-a-mole: A New Approach is needed in Anti-crime Fight in Mexico

This is a detailed critique - from a military point of view - of how poorly the Mexican and U.S. governments' are implementing their whack-a-mole drug war strategy to defeat the cartels.  It does not question the goal of defeating the cartels.

A New Approach is needed in Anti-crime Fight in Mexico: "'The people of the United States like to believe that political will and good intentions can solve most human dilemmas,' wrote historian T. R. Fehrenbach. 'They often find it hard to understand Mexicans, who know better. Yet both heritages are vital parts of the American whole, and together they will forge its future.'[4]

The implications of northern Mexico's geopolitics offer this resounding lesson for confronting border instability: if the United States and Mexico do not hang together, then forces far more powerful than fretful diplomatic cables will eventually hang them separately." Dec. 20, 2010, Mexidata. David Danelo is a Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Reasearch Institute’s Program on National Security,