He must have been reading my blog

Former Tucson Drug Enforcement Administration chief Tony Coulson lays out some damning information in the Fast and Furious debacle. I'm going to quote a big piece of this article because it sounds an awful lot like some of the stuff someone you may know has wrote about in the past, almost word for word:

Coulson also said most other law enforcement officials in Arizona knew Newell had a gun control agenda behind his actions with Fast and Furious and other operations. “Whenever Bill would make those [anti-gun rights] statements [with inflated gun trafficking statistics], everyone would roll their eyes and say, ‘when is someone going to call him on this?’” Coulson said. “That’s because it was only weapons which the Mexican government seized which they chose to trace back to the United States.”

“[Newell] is trying to make this political statement that there is this river of guns, which then the Mexican government picked up on, and said ‘it’s your guns, that’s why we’re having all this violence here,’” Coulson added. “And there’s never any accounting for the fact that probably a majority of the guns, in terms of what law enforcement generally knows, are coming up through Central America and they’recoming from other countries. The 90 percent figure has been debunked as you go along the way. It’s actually something considerably less. … They’re just picking a figure and saying 90 percent of the weapons they seized come from the U.S. Well, really, it’s 90 percent of the weapons that they choose to do a search on results in it originating from the U.S.”

Weird. It's like Coulson is telling the truth or something. I've pointed out before that Agent Newell is almost always the guy in the news harping on gun control, and that he has to know the information he's passing to the public is BS. I've also pointed out that the real military hardware used by the drug cartels is coming from Central and South American countries in the form of US weaponry that we gave those governments, or from the Mexican government itself. Though it's not something I'm usually concerned about, it does feel good to be right!

Coming or going?

MCALLEN, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. Border Patrol agents found a rocket launcher, assault rifles and explosives near the Rio Grande river in Texas, the agency said on Wednesday, a discovery that suggests a link to Mexico's drug wars.

[snip]

Officials theorized that the guns were waiting to be smuggled across the border into Mexico, but said that was just speculation.

It's good to put blind speculation in a news article and present it to the world as fact. No big deal.

So a cache of weapons including grenade launchers, rocket launchers, and C-4 explosives were "intended to go South" based on aforementioned speculation and past cases? Whatever. No doubt these items were bought at the local gunshow for next to nothing with no background check.

If these weapons weren't being transported North by cartel members who got them from the Mexican government, then they had to have been provided by a US government entity that has the ability to acquire them. Wonder who that could be.

Interesting revelations in Project Gunwalker

There is more and more evidence coming out that the ATF was using Project Fast and Furious as a means for fluffing up the numbers of weapons going to Mexico in order to give US lawmakers a chance to push more gun control. If you notice, there's a name of an ATF Special Agent that keeps popping up - Agent Bill Newell, whom I've mentioned a few times before as one who is on the front lines to convince the US public that we're the cause of the cartels having weapons.

Reportercreature: "It doesn't seem like it's that difficult for them to get these guns."

ATF Special Agent Bill Newell Mangan: "It's uh, it's as easy as crossing the border."

With the help of our government, apparently.

This is going to be a major scandal, with or without the help of our shit media organizations. Good on the ATF agents and other ABC agents who have come out against Project Fast and Furious, and shame on agents like Newell who carry the water for gun controllers through lies and deceit.

**Update: A letter from Senator Grassley to ATF Director Kenneth Melson. All I can say about that is OUCH!! If you read nothing else on this page or from the links I have provided, check out Senator Grassley's questions at the bottom of his letter. They are covered from point to hilt in barbs.

***Update: The video I posted above was not Special Agent Newell. You can see him here in the video on this page talking about straw buyers, concealing the fact that he had a large hand in allowing those very guns be sold to criminals.

Magnitudes of violence

I have to take this article with a grain of salt, as it is an interview from a single hidden source named "Juan" conducted by media types known for telling tall tales. If it is true, and really there's not much reason to think otherwise, than violence in Mexico is way worse than I thought.

In one of the most chilling revelations yet about the violence in Mexico, a drug cartel-connected trafficker claims fellow gangsters have kidnapped highway bus passengers and forced them into gladiatorlike fights to groom fresh assassins.

For all I knew, the cartels were only out to kill each other, and any government employees who interfered in the slaughter. I fail to see the problem in violent groups killing each other off, unless they are hurting innocent people. Mentally putting myself on a bus in Mexico, unarmed, and getting stopped by these crazies so that they can make a sport of me fighting others to the death has me a bit disconcerted though, as without a means of resistance I would be helpless. I can not adequately imagine that scenario despite my mind's capable abilities, and I suppose that's a good thing.

Comparing Mexico's violence with the US, I can see that they have taken it to a level that we will hopefully never go. We complain when a federal ABC agency shoots up a citizen in his recliner or a half dozen girls are found murdered in a swamp, and rightly so, but it still does not compare to finding 200 beheaded corpses buried in a shallow grave behind the grocery store every other weekend or full scale firefights between fifty men at the mall. I hope those things do not become commonplace here in America.

Redhawks and Deagles and knifeguns, Oh My!

The Mexican drug cartels have a unique taste in weaponry.

I see a Desert Eagle, some scoped Ruger Redhawks, a North American Arms mini-.22 revolver, and what looks to be a San Juan Enterprise Powell Knife Pistol. There are some other odd looking trinkets in there too, but the named weapons I thought were cool.

Well armed in Mexico

Looks to me like the Mexican armed forces and Mexican law enforcement are pretty well off as far as guns go. They also have armor, air support, artillery, crew served weapons, and uhmmmm. . . .what else was there. . . .oh yeah, US funding. That's helpful too.

It also looks like they could care less that H&K is no longer in the business of arming Mexican government personnel, and thus indirectly arming the cartels, considering that Mexico is using weapons from the likes of Beretta and FNH, and have even fielded their very own rifle for their military.

And while the Beretta ARX160 would probably be on the top of my list if I had to fight the cartels, I certainly wouldn't feel too inadequate to be outfitted with an FN FAL either. Wouldn't necessarily want to clear rooms with it, but for street fighting, yeah, give me the well worn four foot battle rifle that spits 7.62.

Model gun control

"To gain entry to the store, which is on a secure military base, customers must present valid identification, pass through a metal detector, yield to the security wand and surrender cellphones and cameras.

To buy a gun, clients must submit references and prove that their income is honestly earned, that their record is free of criminal charges and that their military obligations, if any, have been fulfilled with honor. They are fingerprinted and photographed. Finally, if judged worthy of owning a small-caliber weapon to protect home and hearth, they are allowed to buy just one. And a box of bullets."

This is to get into the only gun store in Mexico and buy a gun.

There are lots of things to be critical about in this article, the first of which is the claim by the author William Booth that Mexico's ridiculous gun laws are "a matter of pride" for Mexican citizens. How the hell does he know that? Did he do a survey? How can he say that with any authority when he claims later that legal gun sales are declining, but the black market is booming? Sounds to me like the proud Mexican citizens are doing an end run around the shenanigans and getting guns however they want.

The very last paragraph says that if you want a gun, just ask a Mexican police officer to provide you with an illegal one, the easiest way:

"The cop will bring it to your house and show you how to load it," Islas said. "Of course, it is technically illegal."

Well, no shit! There's about the only truth you will find in this whole article. Do notice the use of the word "technically," as in it's not really illegal despite being, you know, illegal. Kinda like 'rape-rape:' the police officer is friendly and providing you with a weapon that's not on Mexico's only gun store's precise list, so it's "technically" totally OK and stuff, and not at all a bad thing; and if you have sex with a girl that's under the age of consent, who's too drugged up to consent even if she legally could, and it like happened a long time ago and stuff, and you're popular, than it's OK too.

I'm starting to get the hang of the leftist ideology that breaking the law is cool as long as it's done properly.

As an afterthought, I wonder how many of those weapons handled in "strict military fashion" are handed to the ordinary citizens by friendly police officers -- who are only breaking the law out of the sheer goodness of their hearts -- and don't make it onto the list of extreme precision. You know the ones I'm talking about:

"Police Sales Only," is filled with weapons that ordinary citizens cannot legally buy - the heavy stuff, such as Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifles and Israeli Galil machine guns, plus gas and concussion grenades, as well as bulletproof vests and helmets.

Rest assured that those friendly police officers do not sell them illegally to the bad men who are flooding the US with narcotics. Nooosirrrreeeebob! It's odd though that I've actually seen pictures somewhere of weapons taken from Mexican drug cartel members' cold dead hands. Come to think of it, I've seen all of that stuff exactly as Booth has stated here, taken from criminals, and a lot of those weapons look just like the hardware that the Mexican military and police forces use.

Hmmmm. I'm thinkin that this gun store may keep precise records of firearms sold over the counter, but isn't keeping the most meticulous count of what gets sold under it. Must be easy to keep track when you're running the only store in an entire nation.

Gunfight in Mexico

There really isn't much to see, as this is a cell phone video shot at night, but the audio tells of a gun battle with full auto weapons, and not gunshow ARs and AKs. The only semi auto fire that I can tell is at the very beginning.

The back story is that the Mexican military had some drug lord cornered, and a convoy of cartel guys came to get him. I wouldn't bother watching the whole thing; it sounds the same from the first minute til almost the last. It does give you an idea though.

The game of Telephone and the human factor

When you don't have substance, give the masses Mexican Drug Farce stories.

I've picked through this article and its sources a bit, and I note that there is a glaring error, among others, from one part to the next part to the next.

In elementary school, this phenomenon was demonstrated to me and my class in the game called Telephone; whereas the teacher whispers instructions in the form of a couple of sentences in a student's ear, and then that student whispers it into another student's ear, and so on and so forth until the message makes it all the way through the class. The last student to hear the message speaks it out loud, which always ends up making the class roar with laughter as the message is butchered out of proportion to what the teacher initially had said. This game is a great demonstration of the human factor, which is the element of error applied in a situation from a well intentioned but error prone human.

Back to the article, let me show you where the human factor has skewed the facts from what was originally a statement made by Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

Sayeth the above linked article:

"One recently released study by the Woodrow Wilson Center and the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego found that out of 75,000 firearms confiscated by Mexican authorities in the last three years, 60,000 of them — or 80 percent — had come from the U.S."

To start with, I went to the Woodrow Wilson Center's website and browsed through their material to find the particular study that claims this; something you would expect National Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff to have done, considering he quoted them. Turns out that he did in fact quote them, though not word for word:

"According to information provided by the Mexican government, which has received training from ATF on identifying firearms, U.S.-origin firearms account for the vast majority of firearms seized in Mexico over the last few years. In May 2010, for example, President Calderon said that of the 75,000 firearms Mexico has seized in the last three years an estimated 80 percent or 60,000 firearms came from the United States." - U.S. Firearms Trafficking to Mexico: New Data and Insights Illuminate Key Trends and Challenges
Colby Goodman
Michel Marizco

Not the same, but close; Isikoff didn't skew the facts though. So now the question remains: did Felipe Calderon say that? I don't have an degree in investigative journalism, so it was incredibly hard for me to click the link cited in that study to find the news article with the quote.

Here's what Calderon actually said:

"Calderón said his government had seized 75,000 guns in Mexico in a three-year period and found that 80 percent of those whose origin could be traced were bought in the United States."

See that? "Whose origin could be traced." So we went from "80% were bought in the US" to "80% whose origin could be traced were bought in the US." That is not insignificant. What has happend here is that the authors of the study saw '75,000' and '80 percent', and they did some quick math and ran with that, instead of taking in what was actually said.

The difference is that of the alleged 75,000 guns confiscated in three years, not all of them were submitted for tracing to the ATF. If Mexican authorities had confiscated a hundred weapons from a drug bust, and fifty of them were full auto AK-47s with Russian and Chinese emblems stamped all over the receiver, twenty were RPGs and 40mm grenades, and the rest were AR-15 or M16 rifles, than why would they bother handing the whole lot over to the ATF when it's obvious that some of them didn't come from the US? The AR/M16 rifles and the 40mm grenades would be handed over to the ATF, as it's well known where they probably came from.

But that doesn't mean that they were purchased by the cartels from a gun store in the US, nor does it mean that they were all made there. What Calderon essentially said was that out of, say, 100 AR-15 or M-16 rifles confiscated, that 80 of those rifles originated in the US. Not surprising is that that family of rifles are generally - not always - but generally, made in the US of A, so no duh that they would be traceable back here. If I were an ATF agent and a Mexican Army Captain handed me a truck full of worn full-auto Galils and RPGs for tracing, I'd think he was a moron. They aren't manufactured in the US, and are not readily available. I would instead tell that Captain to submit them to an agent for the country where those weapons were made. It's common sense.

Back to the article, I found this little tidbit interesting:

"The report also faults a timid investigative strategy by ATF that concentrates on low level “straw purchasers” of illegal firearms rather than high level weapons trafficking organizations."

You don't say? Well, that makes sense too. Busting an element of a major cartel takes lots of time, effort, and danger, I would imagine. Monthly low risk busts would look great on the resume', and you have way less chance of getting into a Blackhawk down type shootout if you call in the SWAT team on Bubba John's trailer at 3am. I mean, who doesn't fear the Reaper, right?

I found lots more stuff that doesn't make the papers because it would be bad for the Mexican Drug Farce meme. It's not hard to find. One would think that an "authorized journalist" would take the ten minutes out of his morning and track down the quote that is the main thrust of his article.

But that's just not how humans roll.

The class is laughing now, so perhaps you reporter-like critters should use some sort of editorial oversight or something to cut down on the human factor.

So where are those guns coming from?

A ridiculous discussion on the 'Weapons seized from Drug Cartels by Mexican Army' thread at Militaryphotos.net about where the guns are actually coming from has turned to angst. Seems some people just know that it's America's fault.

Let me point out something really obvious to everyone. It doesn't matter where a drug cartel thug requisitioned his Colt rifle from in regards to traceability, whether it be he deserted the military and took his issued weapon, or bought it from Billy Bob's gun shack in Arizona, or payed some starving Mexican Federale for his, because every Colt rifle starts life in the same exact place. So no shit the rifle can be "traced back to the US!" That's where it was made! Virtually all AR type rifles are manufactured in the US, so of course they're going to be traced there. I bet every one of the Chevy Tahoes that the cartels use to deliver a car bomb can be traced back to the US too!

From browsing this thread and comparing it to the Mexican Armed Forces thread, it's easy to see that a lot of the heavy hardware starts its service in the hands of Mexican government employees and somehow makes its way into the hands of the cartels. You can argue how that is happening all you want, or not happening, or can't happen, but in every other picture of captured cartel weapons there are those shiny gold canisters that are about 40mm in diameter, and if you look close you can also see them here. Hmmmmm.

Also, the grenades that the cartels use originated in the US too. I gather that the LAW rockets and M203s did as well, and probably the M18 claymores. So don't get all wrapped up around the axle when some alphabet news man or internet commando says that the cartels get weapons from the US. Smile knowing that every one of the 8,000,000+ M16/AR15 pattern weapons that the US brokered to Mexico can be traced back stateside, and then ask is it possible that the cartels may be getting them from the corrupt Mexican government. Trace them all you want to; we know where they're getting them!

Mexican drug war nastiness

MEXICO CITY – The third Mexican mayor in a month was slain by suspected drug gang hitmen on the same day the U.S. secretary of state raised hackles in Mexico by saying the country is "looking more and more like Colombia looked 20 years ago."

Hillary Rodham Clinton and other U.S. officials pointed to Mexican drug cartels' use of three car bombs, a tool once favored by cartel-allied rebels in Colombia, as evidence that the gangs "are now showing more and more indices of insurgency."

Knocking off mayors and using car bombs shows that this mess is far beyond semi auto rifles and where they came from. And not to throw cold water on Hillary's plan absent the facts that she has, but didn't we already have Special Forces Soldiers train the Mexican military? Last I heard, that was not working in our favor.

90% of car bombs in Mexico come from US gun shows

I kid, I kid.

The drug cartels in Mexico have stepped up their game a bit with beheadings and car bombings. It works in other countries, so it's no surprise to hear about these tactics being used.

Also, there's this slideshow showing the little submarines that the cartels are using to smuggle drugs and, presumably, most or all of the grenades, mortars, machine guns, and rocket propelled grenades from Central America into Mexico - although the article doesn't say as much. It does say this:

Surprisingly sophisticated homemade "Narco subs" are the drug cartels' latest tool for smuggling drugs from Latin America into the U.S.

Just drugs, right ABC? Because cartels using these subs to smuggle weapons wouldn't fit the narrative, now would it?

The submarine could have had the capacity to carry at 150 metric tons of cocaine or heroin.

Or, like 5,000 grenades, 50,000 automatic rifles, or 1,000 rockets, which are used to supplement the firepower that the Mexican government bought from the US and gave to the cartels. Just a thought.

It's entirely possible that if the Russian mafia is helping the cartels build frickin' submarines, that they could also be supplying them with bona fide AK47s, which would be a way better economic venture than paying an "ant line" of American soccer moms to buy semi auto Olympic Arms rifles at full price at gunshows in the US, and then smuggle them South where they will have to be converted to full auto at the cartel's expense. I mean I'm not making a wild hypothetical shot here.

Oh, here it is down on slide 9:

" . .these vessels also could be used to ship weapons or personnel.

"That's it!?! Weapons and personnel?!?! I guess if it's in there, it's in there, right? Phenomenal.

Looking at the last picture shows just how dire the drug war is; that sub can go 65' under the surface, carry a 10 ton payload, and was built in a muddy creek in Ecuador by illiterate starving smugglers. And we're not talking the USS Fantastic here; this thing is a bare bones one time use rig, so it's not like the operators are going to fight for it. One of those slides shows a crew abandoning a sub via blow up life raft, and they often sink the sub with all the evidence. It looks to be a low risk operation.

I guess the obvious thing to do would be for the US to throw a billion or so dollars at the problem. That would be a way more beneficial use to Americans than buying down mortgages or such. The flow of drugs must stop.

The Prison Guard Loophole

Mexican prosecutors say guards at a prison let inmates out and lent them guns to massacre 17 people at a party, then allowed them to return to their cells.

I'm betting that the guns the guards lent to the killers were of US origin, so count this as 17 more senseless deaths from US gun show assault thingies.

Target practice, cartel style!

Militaryphotos.net has a good thread on the guns of the Mexican drug cartels.

Gunshow guns, the whole lot of em'. What, you don't believe me? Have you noticed at how far the prices on gold plated AKs have dropped?

Yeah, me neither.

Ever the optimist, I notice the piss poor gun handling of these guys, as well as their "marksmanship." I mean, who doesn't fire rounds into the air when they go to the range?

Update: Check out the Browning 1919 machine guns! I just turned several of those down a few days ago from a sale offer through Bass Pro Shops. They were giving them away with the purchase of Barska spotting scope, but I already have a pile of 1919s rusting away in the closet. Sometimes I think that getting machine guns is too easy here in the US.

Traced to the US, no doubt

Adding more and more nails to the Mexican Drug Farce coffin, militant cartel gunman attacked Mexican federal police this weekend with grenades. Who wants to bet that the grenades were either M61 or M67 type made in the USA?

Any takers?

I ask because that would mean that, you know, the grenades could be "traced" to the US. Probably came from a gunshow, or the back of an NRA gun dealers van, or even Gander Mountain - they had a buy-one-get-one-free sale on foreign and domestic grenades this weekend. I hear that next month, they're giving away mortars to the first twelve people to buy a gun safe, so keep your eyes peeled!

Firearm training in Mexico!

It looks like Mexican businessmen need meat puppets to protect them from the cartels. I can't blame them.

Of interest is that there is only one day of live fire. Also note the part about Mexican Special Operations Soldiers, as well as SWAT cops, changing sides and joining the cartels.

You don't reckon that they bothered to take their issued automatic weapons with them, do you?

Tunnels of love

It always amazes me how crafty mankind can be when they are hellbent on accomplishing something.

Check out this ABC News photo essay on tunnels that Mexican drug cartels build in order to smuggle drugs and people (and RPGs, mortars, and missiles purchased cheaply and without scrutiny from US guns shows) across the border into the US. That takes time and talent.

This beam, what is it doing in my eye?!?!

"Hey US, stop letting my narcos buy weapons from your gun shows."

Alright, Mexican president Felipe Calderon didn't quite phrase it like that, but that's exactly what he's saying. If people in the US would just stop snorting drugs and make it illegal for the narcos to buy guns, Mexico wouldn't be in this problem in the first place.

Awesome.

Calderon says that in the last three years or so, they have confiscated over 66,000 weapons - half of them "assault thingies." Well let me ask you something about that, sport.

Out of those weapons your guys have confiscated, how many of them were originally sold by the US government to your government? Were any of them the:

• 6,407,497 M16s
• 1,853,384 AR15s
• 1,282,841 Sub machine guns
• 1,026,692 TOW missiles
• 23,071,635 Pistols and Revolvers

. . . .sold to the Mexican Army between 1996 and 2003? Were they part of the over 240 million weapons systems kindly sold to you, because they all "originated" in the US, many of them manufactured here.

You should at least make an elementary attempt at tying up your loose ends before taking a poke at us. You could start by closing the "Mexican Government Loophole;" you know, the one where your own law enforcement and officials routinely broker deals to scumbags. That would help.

Jerk!

Two and a half cases of ammo to Mexico seized

A major victory in the Mexican Drug Farce?

I see it as two fun filled weekends of shooting for some Texan was spared from being shot at the Federales by scumbags. Hopefully the ammo gets returned to its rightful owner.

Oh, and a whole 13 rounds were "armor piercing," meaning it had a steel core. This means nothing in reality, as non steel core rounds have no problems piercing armor, trees, or armor and trees at the same time. It's just a pathetic stab at some sort of shock value.

One step forward, two steps back

With drug violence on a frightening rise along the Mexican border, the assessment found greater levels of heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine flowing across the border than ever before -- and predicts more to come.

****

Government officials, in fact, estimate that heroin production in Mexico jumped from 17 metric tons in 2007 to 38 tons in 2008.

Saaaaweeeet!! So how much is this "progress" going to cost Americans?

Earlier this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Mexico with other high-level administration officials to discuss the Merida Initiative, a multi-year, $1.4 billion project aimed at helping Mexico combat organized crime. Clinton said the initiative would emphasize social and economic development in addition to security.

It's a damn fine thing that America doesn't need that $1.4 billion to fund our own social and economic development. Really though, if she didn't give our money to Mexico, it would have been squandered here on something just as stupid. In the end, it's always about the money.

I've talked about that before. More and more money and effort is going to be thrown at the problem. That includes the funding of more arms and equipment, which Hillary will be bitching about shortly when the cartels get a hold of it and expand their efficiency at killing.

Remember the encrypted radios and night vision? Quoting an earlier post:

. . . take former drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey's word for it:

"As a result, the U.S. government has stepped up military assistance to the Mexican military and police, mostly through transfers of free military equipment. Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug policy director, traveled to Mexico in March 1996 smoothing the way for an agreement between the two governments which has resulted in Mexican soldiers beginning to train at Ft. Bragg and other American bases, and in the gift of 73 "surplus" helicopters, four C-26 surveillance planes, night vision goggles, radios and other military equipment. In addition, the White House has requested $9 million in military aid for Mexico for fiscal year 1998 (up from $3 million in fiscal year 1996) for the purchase of new weapons from U.S. arms manufacturers.

That was in 1996, but what does Gen. (Retired) McCaffrey have to say now:

The outgunned Mexican law enforcement authorities face armed criminal attacks from platoon-sized units employing night vision goggles, electronic intercept collection, encrypted communications, fairly sophisticated information operations, sea-going submersibles, helicopters and modern transport aviation, automatic weapons, RPG’s, Anti-Tank 66 mm rockets, mines and booby traps, heavy machine guns, 50 cal sniper rifles, massive use of military hand grenades, and the most modern models of 40mm grenade machine guns.

Emphasis all mine.

So we are now at the point where $3 - $9 million a year is not cutting it, so the ratchet gets a few hundred cranks and we are now giving multi-year awards for billions. Inflation is a real bitch.

But at least we're slowing the flow of drugs into the US, right? Oh yeah, it's getting worse. I suppose this is all part of that "the increase in resistance is because we're winning" strategy. Nice yardstick.

Also in the article, I found this:

The report's authors credited the Mexican government with moving to ban the importation of certain chemicals used to produce methamphetamine, but notes the cartels have found substitutes.

No way? Those clever drug dealers must have mastered chemistry! I can't imagine how they pulled that one off, with their clear track record of incompetence and all. And what do chemicals have to do with drugs anyways? Everyone knows heroin is plucked off of trees. Just ban the trees. Just the same, I think now is the time that the Mexican government should ban NyQuil, you know, to stop the narco terrorists from making ecstasy. Methamphetemines are grown in NyQuil you see - George W. Bush proved it with his own clever initiative to take away cough medicine that contains that baby killing stuff called psuedoephedrine. It worked!! No more ecstasy!!

This whole shootin' match (pun intended) is an engineering catastrophe of the US and Mexico's design. Yeah, the drug cartels are violent scumbags, but the fact that they exist and thrive is entirely the fault of these two governments. It's very clear that the further funding of this mess is fuel being poured on the fire, with no end in sight; and any day now, the US and Mexico are going to hold a presser stating that they're no longer going to fund this nightmare. Any. Day. Now.