<p>The brutal murder of nine Americans – including six children – should convince of something we should have known all along – that the United States is being victimized and terrorized by the vicious criminal elements south of the border. The criminal gangs and drug cartellians being exported by Mexico are as vicious as ISIS and a lot closer.</p>
<p>As in the Middle east, powerful gangs have taken effective control of regions of Mexico by intimidating local officials – and killing those who would not be intimidated. The economic and political influence of these gangs reaches all the way to Mexico City.</p>
<p>In recent months, we have seen the release of Ovidio Guzmán López, the son and successor of Joaquin Guzman – better known as El Chapo. His release followed a shoot out with gang members. Lopez was wanted in both Mexico and the United States. The enormous power of the Guzman operation is based on money as well as violence. Prior to his arrest and extradition to the United States, El Chapo was estimated to be worth more than $15 billion. His Sinaloa Cartel is fully operational even as El Chapo sits in an American prison.</p>
<p>Every gangbanger that enters America – and ever ounce of illicit drugs – should be considered a threat to our security and an attack on the United States. Even drugs that are not produced in Mexico – some coming from the Middle and Far East – us our southern neighbor as a conduit.</p>
<p>Following the recent murder of the nine Americans, President Trump called on Mexican President Andrés Obrador to go after the cartels. Amazingly, Obrador demurred, saying that had been tried and did not work. Rather he proposed eliminating poverty.</p>
<p>With Democrats refusing to secure our southern border and Mexican authorities refusing to take on the violent cartels, it is time for the United States to get tough. We should deal with the situation just as we are dealing with terrorists from the Middle East.</p>
<p>We should declare the drug cartels to be international terrorist organizations. They are, in fact, much more than local criminal elements. We should lead an effort to get the UN seriously involved in defeating the international drug industry. Of course, that will just prove again how ineffective is the UN when it comes to actually doing something meaningful.</p>
<p>We should then use the leverage of the United States to DEMAND that America and Mexico join in a united MILITARY operation to wipe out the cartels. We should target their leaders for assassination – just as we did with Osama Bin Laden and Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.</p>
<p>And what if Mexico refuses to participate? We then have to explain that the United States WILL take action unilaterally. Yes, that means we would have to cross over into Mexican territory. We went into Pakistan to get Bin Laden and Syria to get al Baghdadi. We should employ both overt and covert operations.</p>
<p>If Mexico was convinced that the United States would act unilaterally, there is a very high probability that the Mexican government would cooperate – at least to the extent of permitting U.S. military intervention.</p>
<p>We can use highly sophisticated military technology to identify and destroy locations where drugs producing plants are grown and where they are manufactured.</p>
<p>Rather than dealing with domestic drug dealers or folks like MS13 as common criminals, we should apply terrorist status and deal with him accordingly. Those in the United States illegally should be treated as foreign combatants and subjected to military tribunals – and maybe spend their best years playing Scrabble at Gitmo. We have a lot of empty beds there.</p>
<p>If they are American citizens, the application of terrorist laws would at least get them much longer prison terms.</p>
<p>Yes … the left-wing civil libertarians will have a hissy-fit – as they do almost any time America shows leadership. Nothing proposed above, however, is different than what we are legally and properly doing in other parts of the world. The only changes are that we are not looking the other way in the face of the attacks on the United States from international organized crime syndicates.</p>
<p>Of course, border security is an important element, but until Democrats get serious about protecting our border and our national security, that will be a lagging option.</p>
<p>If this seems too extreme, put yourself in the shoes of those millions … yes, millions … of Americans who are mourning the deaths of loved ones at the hands of illegal aliens and international criminals – those whose loved ones were macheted to death or died with needles in their arms.</p>
<p>So, there ‘tis.</p>
<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:</strong> A LOT more people die from needles in their arms.</p>