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'Our Top National Security Concern' January 22, 2009 #178
Our Top National Security Concern
By Dr Dave McIntyre, Director Integrative Center for Homeland Security, 22 Jan 2009
With the arrival of a new Administration comes a relook at the biggest security challenges we face as a nation. I bet you will be surprised at our answer -- -- if you will give me Just a Minute for Homeland Security.
I’m Dave McIntyre, Director of the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M.
The economy must certainly be a top security issue for our new President, as are terrorism, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran, Pakistan and North Korea vie for attention, as well as crises like Darfur. Domestically, jobs compete with health care and education as priorities. And the list of global issues is long, from carbon emissions to pollution of the sea.
To make it to the top of this list, an issue should be immediate in its impact, and critical to the nation’s long term security. One of the few issues this important is . . . Mexico. From the CIA, to the Justice Department, to the National Security Council, to the Department of Homeland Security, outgoing officials put their finger on problems south of our border as a top concern. [1] [2]
They were not talking about illegal immigration, or the smuggling of terrorists or WMD, or even the flow of drugs into America’s cities and schools. Their concern is an unprecedented tide of violence that made Mexico more dangerous than Iraq last year, and led the US Joint Forces Command to express concern over a possible “rapid and sudden collapse” of the government. [3] DHS has ordered plans prepared for a “border surge” to meet a possible rush of millions fleeing the resulting chaos. [4]
Other experts are less concerned about a sudden implosion than about a steady erosion of legitimate government. If the kidnapping, rape and murder of thousands of leaders, citizens and journalists wins the day, we could find the structure of government for our closest neighbor in the hands of narco-terrorists. Imagine if every American company that deals in Mexico were suddenly subject to courts and police owned by the drug mafia. Imagine if Tony Soprano was a NAFTA partner, with our whole infrastructure for trade open to extortion and theft.
It is important to remember that the source of this problem is US citizens buying drugs from Mexico, and US citizens selling heavy weapons for drug cash. Mexican officials, soldiers and law enforcement are putting their lives on the line daily in a bid to break the cartels. The US has promised $1.5 billion to supports these efforts. We have just started to deliver the first $400 million. That is about one one-thousandth of the first payout to irresponsible banks. Maybe it is time to look hard at our security priorities.
This is Dave McIntyre from the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M, inviting you to join us again next week as we return to our look at what’s included in homeland security studies – here on Just a Minute . . . for Homeland Security.
[1] Traci Carl, Associated Press. See “Mexican Drug Wars Worry Many in the US,” Sun-Sentinel, January 19, 2009, at http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-flamexico0119sbjan19,0,6878124.storym and a different version at “Drug wars worry top US Officials,” The Eagle, Bryan-College Station, Texas, January 19, 2009, http://www.theeagle.com/texas/Drug-wars-worry-top-U-S--officials .
[2] National Drug Threat Assessment, Washington, DC” National Drug Intelligence Center, January 2009.
[3] General J.N. Mattis, The Joint Operating Environment 2008, Norfolk, VA: United States Joint Forces Command, Dec 2008.
[4] Randal C. Archibod, “U.S. Plans Border ‘Surge’ Against Any Drug Wars,” nytimes.com, January 8, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/us/08chertoff.html?_r=3&sq=border%20violence&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=print