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Cartels are in real trouble

It’s irrelevant that their activities are absolutely central to the flow of dangerous drugs into our country?

LOL, it’s not only not irrelevant. It’s central to the reason we have to confront and obliterate them.

It's irrelevant to the point that I was making, and you know that

You guys are all unbelievably naive to think we are going to obliterate drug cartels with the US military. Just wow. 24 years into the GWOT and still think we can solve problems like this with military intervention. That's like 1980s Reagan era drug policy thinking.
 
It's irrelevant to the point that I was making, and you know that

You guys are all unbelievably naive to think we are going to obliterate drug cartels with the US military. Just wow. 24 years into the GWOT and still think we can solve problems like this with military intervention. That's like 1980s Reagan era drug policy thinking.
Tough stuff. I see both sides but tend to agree with you. It’s an opposition that’s so splintered, amorphous, yet seemingly everywhere. The mex gov, corrupted or not, has fought for over a decade. Concerted. I don’t know. And that Colombian coke cokes from mex too. Fen, coke, heroin
 
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An Idea Whose Time Should Never Come: Using Special Forces Against the Cartels Would Be a Colossal Mistake​



If that piece persuades me of anything, it’s that we’ve been derelict in allowing the cartels to muscle up.

Other than that, it doesn’t really make many coherent arguments. It just says that confronting them would be bad and posits the question of who fills the power vacuum.

I don’t know the answer to that question. But could it be anybody worse? If so, maybe they’ll understand that doing so would be bad for their health. These people aren’t religious fanatics. They’re interested primarily in money,
 
If that piece persuades me of anything, it’s that we’ve been derelict in allowing the cartels to muscle up.

Other than that, it doesn’t really make many coherent arguments. It just says that confronting them would be bad and posits the question of who fills the power vacuum.

I don’t know the answer to that question. But could it be anybody worse? If so, maybe they’ll understand that doing so would be bad for their health. These people aren’t religious fanatics. They’re interested primarily in
I don’t know. Start Fing with them maybe they behave more like fanatics. They have representation in 50 plus countries. To twenty’s point they aren’t Fing with Americans, tourists etc otherwise. They just want to make money. Maybe doubling down on treatment and abatement of opioid addiction is the better approach. Suspected kids get their thermos and narcan every morning
 
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I don’t know. Start Fing with them maybe they behave more like fanatics. They have representation in 50 plus countries. To twenty’s point they aren’t Fing with Americans, tourists etc otherwise. They just want to make money. Maybe doubling down on treatment and abatement of opioid addiction is the better approach. Suspected kids get their thermos and narcan every morning
There was a time when I would’ve agreed with you on this. And our policy has clearly moved in that direction over the last couple decades.

Can anybody honestly say that it’s worked?

US_timeline._Number_of_overdose_deaths_from_all_drugs.jpg
 
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There was a time when I would’ve agreed with you on this. And our policy has clearly moved in that direction over the last couple decades.

Can anybody honestly say that it’s worked?

US_timeline._Number_of_overdose_deaths_from_all_drugs.jpg

Fentanyl makes too much money, it can be produced basically anywhere, in small clandestine operations....

We failed to ever once make a reduction in Columbian cocaine production, even after decades and billions spent in military support to Bogota. And fentanyl makes cocaine look like Mexican ditch weed, in it's profit margin, ease of production and transportation.
 
There was a time when I would’ve agreed with you on this. And our policy has clearly moved in that direction over the last couple decades.

Can anybody honestly say that it’s worked?

US_timeline._Number_of_overdose_deaths_from_all_drugs.jpg
So probably 80k of that is fentanyl. Back out 15k as prescription overdoses. You’re not going to fully eradicate the trade. Is that worth kicking the hornets’ nest. You can put more money into treatment and abatement. Narcan at every locker. Whatever. I don’t know
 
So probably 80k of that is fentanyl. Back out 15k as prescription overdoses. You’re not going to fully eradicate the trade. Is that worth kicking the hornets’ nest. You can put more money into treatment and abatement. Narcan at every locker. Whatever. I don’t know

$800 of precursor chemicals can make $640k in street value product. Good luck ever shutting something like that down from the supply side
 
Fentanyl makes too much money, it can be produced basically anywhere, in small clandestine operations....

We failed to ever once make a reduction in Columbian cocaine production, even after decades and billions spent in military support to Bogota. And fentanyl makes cocaine look like Mexican ditch weed, in it's profit margin, ease of production and transportation.
Colombia isn’t Mexico. We don’t share a border with it.
 
So probably 80k of that is fentanyl. Back out 15k as prescription overdoses. You’re not going to fully eradicate the trade. Is that worth kicking the hornets’ nest. You can put more money into treatment and abatement. Narcan at every locker. Whatever. I don’t know

I don’t think we’ll eradicate the trade.

I do think we can and should do more to disrupt it.
 
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No. Not a guerrilla war. Open war. Surgical JSOC targeting and unleashing. Thousands of bodies.

It’s long overdue.
Sure, and leading the charge should be Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Followed by sons and daughters of senators and representatives.
 
It's irrelevant to the point that I was making, and you know that

You guys are all unbelievably naive to think we are going to obliterate drug cartels with the US military. Just wow. 24 years into the GWOT and still think we can solve problems like this with military intervention. That's like 1980s Reagan era drug policy thinking.
I agree. The cartels don’t care how many people die, anywhere. The only reason they don’t target Americans is because it’s bad for business. If you eliminate that reason by attacking them with the military, they’re just going to start butchering Americans and hanging them from overpasses like they do with Mexicans.

And the money will always be there to be made. Every cartel we eliminate will be replaced with another in about 20 seconds.
 
If we’d only get more Walters and Jessies with some ambition on this side of the border, the kids wouldn’t need to buy all this Mexican stuff
 
So probably 80k of that is fentanyl. Back out 15k as prescription overdoses. You’re not going to fully eradicate the trade. Is that worth kicking the hornets’ nest. You can put more money into treatment and abatement. Narcan at every locker. Whatever. I don’t know
Yes, killing 60k+ Americans a year (and growing ) is worth it. The main objective of the military should be to protect U.S. citizens. Not fighting useless wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and Ukraine.

Of course we should try to stop a country on our border from killing 100s of thousands of our citizens. If the military can’t do it, cut the budget in half.
 
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I am very skeptical that we can militarily defeat drug cartels. They can move between countries. We don't like military losses, and there will be military losses. Their operational security tends to be good, someone captured knows that the cartels can easily kill their families. They can embed in with civilians making collateral damage unacceptably high.

At the same point, we have never figured out how to address this from the demand end. Our efforts to get people to stay off drugs have been laughable, at best.

Mexico is half a rung up from being a failed state. Would involvement boost them, or knock them down?

The US has a long history of military interventions in Central America. The law of unintended consequences has never been in our favor in those interventions.

Yet, we have to attack fentanyl somehow. We can't attack China, we can rule that out. So unless someone has an idea on how to attack the demand end, I don't see solutions.

Which means we are in The Princess Bride. I clearly cannot choose the "do nothing" plan in front of me, and I clearly cannot choose the "attack Mexico" plan in front of you. So we are stuck with choosing the plan of least damage. I'm not sure which that is. I suspect engaging in Mexico will only have minor impacts on the trade, some of it will move to other nations and we won't end production in Mexico. So we get the drawbacks with no real gain. But doing nothing and thinking the problem will improve is throwing in the towel and I never like that solution.
 
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$800 of precursor chemicals can make $640k in street value product. Good luck ever shutting something like that down from the supply side
The objective is to change the directory of the amount of deaths in the U.S. from it. And yes it would do that.
 
Need to lop the head off the American drug cartels first. They are the ones driving demand for opioids.
See this is where the intense focus on the Sackler’s and Big Pharma perverts peoples view of reality.

No Fentanyl deaths are not a result of a pharma industry that overprescribes opioids. The vast, vast majority Fentanyl deaths will have never been prescribed an opioid in their life.

It’s convenient to tell ourselves these are all innocent people who took something from a doctor for a short amount of time to combat physical pain and then got hooked.

The reality, that the country is facing a massive spiritual crisis and we have millions in despair trying to disassociate, is tougher to stomach.
 
See this is where the intense focus on the Sackler’s and Big Pharma perverts peoples view of reality.

No Fentanyl deaths are not a result of a pharma industry that overprescribes opioids. The vast, vast majority Fentanyl deaths will have never been prescribed an opioid in their life.

It’s convenient to tell ourselves these are all innocent people who took something from a doctor for a short amount of time to combat physical pain and then got hooked.

The reality, that the country is facing a massive spiritual crisis and we have millions in despair trying to disassociate, is tougher to stomach.
Me. Lilly has entered the chat.
 
I am very skeptical that we can militarily defeat drug cartels. They can move between countries. We don't like military losses, and there will be military losses. Their operational security tends to be good, someone captured knows that the cartels can easily kill their families. They can embed in with civilians making collateral damage unacceptably high.

At the same point, we have never figured out how to address this from the demand end. Our efforts to get people to stay off drugs have been laughable, at best.

Mexico is half a rung up from being a failed state. Would involvement boost them, or knock them down?

The US has a long history of military interventions in Central America. The law of unintended consequences has never been in our favor in those interventions.

Yet, we have to attack fentanyl somehow. We can't attack China, we can rule that out. So unless someone has an idea on how to attack the demand end, I don't see solutions.

Which means we are in The Princess Bride. I clearly cannot choose the "do nothing" plan in front of me, and I clearly cannot choose the "attack Mexico" plan in front of you. So we are stuck with choosing the plan of least damage. I'm not sure which that is. I suspect engaging in Mexico will only have minor impacts on the trade, some of it will move to other nations and we won't end production in Mexico. So we get the drawbacks with no real gain. But doing nothing and thinking the problem will improve is throwing in the towel and I never like that solution.

Disrupting the supply would be a positive step, even if it doesn’t end it (which I agree that it wouldn’t).

And, so far as the prospect of casualties go, we have much better unmanned capabilities today than we had in years past.
 
The objective is to change the directory of the amount of deaths in the U.S. from it. And yes it would do that.

I agree. It’s not an all-or-nothing proposition.

Disrupting the supply chain more than we presently are seems like it would be a good thing. I don’t think we’ve made operating as difficult for them as we could or should.
 
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