Mexican Police Among the Shooters of U.S. Officials

That's not going to help relations

Two U.S. diplomats were wounded in an attack Friday by gunmen that included members of Mexico's Federal Police, an incident likely to raise tensions between Washington and Mexico over the handling of the country's violent drug wars.

Federal police agents fired at an armored sport-utility vehicle carrying two U.S. officials on a rural road south of Mexico City, according to Mexico's Public Security Ministry, which oversees the country's 35,000-strong Federal Police force.

Comments

[Malcolm Kyle]

Mexico's gruesome civil war is clearly a product of the failed policy of Prohibition.

Alcohol Prohibition was a tremendous failure due to the incredible amount of crime and disorder it created. Human nature hasn't changed since the 1920s, when the distribution of liquor was turned over to a whole new group of criminal entrepreneurs. Drug Prohibition has turned Mexico into a civil war zone. Dangerous mind altering substances are again being manufactured, smuggled, and sold by criminals. Our intentions in prohibiting these substances may well be good but the result of our inability to recognize the futility of such an action will both deepen and prolong the agony caused by this extremely counter-productive and dangerous policy.

The future depends on whether or not enough of us are willing to take a long look at the tragic results of prohibition. If we continue to skirt the primary issue while refusing to address the root problem then we can expect no other result than a worsening of the current dire situation. Good intentions, wishful thinking and pseudoscience are no match for the immutable realities of human nature.