So I had some thoughts I wanted to share on this. The MAGA movement went from a Libertarian self defense approach to the illegal immigrant crisis back in 2016 with building a wall, having sensors in the ground for underground tunneling and only shooting people once they've trespassed over the border. Now we're more or less taking the gloves off and seeking to militarily pull the weed out by root and stem.
While this does sort of betray the "no new wars" promise Trump made and it does bring us back to the Bush era War on Terror shit we were supposed to depart from, I feel this is more justified than the forever war of perpetually occupying desert shitholes in the Middle East, because this is a serious problem that's been persistently plaguing the United States for decades. Not only that, this onslaught comes from a direct neighbor we share a border with, so they can't be ignored on the simple pretense they're half a globe away and however radical, mostly toothless insofar as damaging the U.S. directly is concerned.
I, however, have a prediction to make. This Mexican cartel problem can only end with the U.S. annexing Mexico fully. This was an idea that
@AnOminous came up with and I supported it fully, but the more I think about it the more inevitable it really is.
Deploying surgical strike teams into Mexico to destroy significant nodes in the cartel power structure either by seizing or destroying assets or assassinating key figures will only go so far and limits the U.S. military's ability to project power over Mexico as a whole. The cartels, be it on their back foot or best foot forward, will adapt and do everything they can to persist. They'll either try to become more covert or start openly fighting back, or perhaps both. The fighting will get so brutal that it will be grounds for justifying a full ground invasion of Mexico.
But let's say we do manage to purge Mexico of all its cartels wholesale without invading and taking territory piece by piece, we then fortify our borders, turn our back to Mexico and begin focusing on our own affairs, it begs one question.
How did Mexico become infested with drug cartels? Are the cartels the disease or just a symptom? Does the body languish under Ebola just because it's Ebola or does the body have AIDS? Does Mexico naturally lend itself to cartels in some way, be it a cultural, governmental or economic problem? Furthermore and more pertinent, once you've eliminated the Mexican cartels, who's to say that the South American cartels won't simply move up to Mexico? It is called a power vacuum for a reason.
I really don't see the cartel problem staying solved unless Mexico is annexed and it's just policed by the American government permanently. Be it under Trump or someone else in the future, a full ground invasion followed by annexation of Mexico seems inevitable, and it'll come as a series of escalations when restraint proves ineffectual time and time again.
