Right on, General

Here follows a tiny excerpt of a report from Barry R McCaffrey, General USA (Retired), former commander of the US Army Southern command, and drug tzar under Clinton:

The Mexican State is engaged in an increasingly violent, internal struggle against heavily armed narco-criminal cartels that have intimidated the public, corrupted much of law enforcement, and created an environment of impunity to the law.


Mexico is not confronting dangerous criminality--- it is fighting for survival against narco-terrorism.

• A terrible tragedy is going to take place in the coming decade if we don’t closely ally ourselves with the courageous Mexican leadership of the Calderon Administration---- and develop a resourced strategy appropriate for the dangers we face.

Mexico is arguably the most important foreign partner of the United States. The United States is unarguably the most important foreign partner for Mexico. Mexico supplies a third of our imported oil. We account for 47% of all foreign direct investment in Mexico. 18,000 Mexican companies have US investment. 50% of their imports come from the US. 82% of their exports go to the US.

However, based on my years of watching Mexico--- the bottom line is this: the population is extremely hard working, humble, gracious, spiritually devout, patriotic, and family oriented. The culture and art are rich and fiercely admired by the people.
 
Read the whole report here