It appears that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has a habit of confusing the United States Army with the Drug Enforcement Agency. First an American General in Afghanistan under his supervision announces that henceforth American personal will shoot on sight anyone connected with the opium trade, thereby vastly increasing support for the Taliban, and now Gates wants to move U.S. troops into Mexico to enforce drug prohibition there. On the television program Meet the Press he stated that, "I think we are beginning to be in a position to help the Mexicans more than we have in the past. Some of the old biases against cooperation between our militaries and so on, I think, are being set aside."

However, in an article for the McClatchy website Marisa Taylor and Nancy A. Youssef present evidence that the Mexican Army, Laredo police, numerous federal agencies, and the Obama Administration in general all have little enthusiasm for Gate’s vision. Also, moving this project forward is not made easier when “during a trip designed to expand U.S. Mexican-military relations, Adm. Michael Mullen, the highest-ranking U.S. military officer, visited the graves of American troops who died during the Mexican-American war just as Gates did during his first visit in August.”

In 1916, the last time the United States Army entered Mexico, it went to fight opponents of the Mexican government who were involved with drugs and it quickly withdrew because of more important conflicts on the world stage. Hopefully, history will not repeat itself because that would be wrongheaded, expensive, and deadly.

Cross posted on The Trebach Report