Whack-a-mole: The Mexican Drug War and the Thirty Years’ War

*** A very different and interesting point of view on the Mexican cartels as mercenary armies

Bellum » The Mexican Drug War and the Thirty Years’ War: " During the Thirty Years’ War, generals ... raised armies in the thousands of men. (The majority) were mercenaries .... Sometimes these armies switched sides wholesale as their generals were lured away by greater pay. They sustained themselves by seizing towns and villages, collecting “contributions” from the residents.

Today, the cartels down in Mexico operate in a similar manner. ... 

Needless to say, the analogy only goes so far. The Mexican government is not the degenerate Holy Roman Empire of the 17th-century. But the model fits better than seeing the Mexican conflict as a criminal enterprise. What appears to be happening is competition between armies of mercenaries that operate the way any army would operate."