In the last five years, some 50,000 people have been killed in Mexican drug violence. Based on a New York Daily News analysis of statistics from the Mexican Attorney General’s Office, those numbers translate to about one death every 30 minutes in 2011.
Some of those killed have been cartel members. Others have been mayors, policemen, journalists and schoolchildren.
Americans who care, and there aren’t many, generally acknowledge that the U.S. has a stake in this atrocity. But virtually no one seems to acknowledge our responsibility for it.
That responsibility is undeniable. Those 50,000 people died for us.
Not for our freedom, our security, or our values — well, maybe for our values. If we are ready to officially declare hedonism as an American value, then I suppose those 50,000 died for Americans.
Because the recreational drugs that are fueling these killings are grown, transported and sold to Americans.
Our willingness to accept wide-scale suffering in the world’s most vulnerable communities as the price of fleeting, mindless entertainment is a black stain on our national honor. There’s probably a word for this special form of selfishness — somewhere between hubris and indifference — but immaturity is surely its root cause.
The U.S. government has made efforts to stop trafficking, focusing mostly on border-protection strategies while sending advisors to Mexican officials.
But earlier this month, Gen. Charles Jacoby, commander of U.S. Northern Command and the military head of U.S. homeland defense efforts, told the U.S. Senate that our current anti-cartel strategies are failing.
As part of Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s military campaign against drug cartels, Mexican military and federal police have pursued a strategy of “decapitation” and have become pretty good at killing influential bosses.
But “decapitation” looks like “whack a mole” in practice. Every time a drug boss is eliminated, someone else steps up to take his place.
This shouldn’t be surprising. With tens of billions at stake, the laws of supply and demand tell us that the American drug market will always have suppliers.
The U.S. government has gone to great expense and the Mexican government has gone all-in, but cartels have adapted to survive. Today, they cross the border underground, in submarines or in small aircraft. They buy police, storm military bases, hunt journalists and rule entire cities. They will continue to adapt, grow and destroy as long as there are such vast riches to be had.
Some Americans have looked at these same facts and argued that our drug laws need to change. There is an argument there, and relaxing drug prohibitions might lesson the financial incentives of trafficking. But in the meantime, that suggestion does nothing to absolve us of our moral culpability.
It seems a small thing to ask the most privileged people in world history to forgo one of our many destructive indulgences in order to stop murder and torture.
The hardest part of growing up is learning that you can’t do what you want. Adults have duties to each other, as do nations.
As Americans, it is past time to put aside childish things.
Reach the columnist at john.a.gaylord@asu.edu
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