Mexico 2011

Victor Davis Hanson has some thoughts on what our southern neighbor has in store next year:

I think we will see more of the same in 2011 in Mexico. The drug cartel killing spree raises a number of less discussed considerations. We are told the huge American demand for drugs, both grown and manufactured, creates the problem; perhaps in part, but note that we have a longer, more porous border with Canada and we are not seeing a shoot 'em up culture arising in Calgary or Toronto over meth or heroin exporting to the U.S. Something else is going on as well. We were also told that the continuation of massive illegal immigration from Mexico to the U.S. at least had a 'safety valve' effect that lessened tensions in Mexico while earning it nation-saving foreign exchange; but after 11-16 million Mexican nationals have fled to the United States the last 20 years, exactly how has that mass flight and ensuing remittances of an estimated $30 billion per annum made things any better in Mexico?

In short, everything from the drug industry to illegal immigration is symptomatic of a larger pathology in the sense that Mexico has not embraced open markets, truly consensual government, respect for private property, transparency, and an independent judiciary—in the style of the reformist agendas in Chile and Brazil—and thus cannot provide security and prosperity for its own people. We could legalize drugs, let in another 20 million illegal aliens, allow $100 million to be sent back to Mexico from nationals here—and there would still be violence and instability in Mexico.

Mexico is becoming the Western world's Afghanistan. Read the rest of it at the link.