Mexico Drug War Politics: Obama’s U.N. omission: the war next door

Andres Oppenheimer - MiamiHerald.com: "To my surprise, in his speech at the General Assembly’s opening session, President Obama talked at length about Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Cote D’Ivorie — about almost every major conflict, except the one right next to the United States.

I happen to like what Obama said about most of these issues, including his reminder to the world that Israel’s security concerns, as a country surrounded by neighbors that have invaded it repeatedly and that still allow terrorists to throw rockets at its cities, are legitimate.

But it felt odd that Obama didn’t mention the words drugs, cartels, organized crime, or Mexico even once in his U.N. speech, ignoring a war that has caused nearly 40,000 deaths in Mexico alone over the past five years — much more than all recent Middle Eastern uprisings — and that is becoming one of the biggest hurdles to economic growth in the region."

read more