Rick Perry suggests US military role in Mexico drug war
"It may require our military in Mexico working in concert with them to kill these drug cartels and keep them off our border," Rick Perry said. He added "But I think it is very important for us to work with them to keep that country from failing". Perry said that as president, he would work with Mexico in the same way the US has worked with Colombia to combat drug cartels.
“The way that we were able to stop the drug cartels in Colombia was with a coordinated effort,” he said in a campaign speech in New Hampshire. “It may take our military” working with the Mexican government to win Mexico’s drug war, he said.
Such a move would go far beyond current US involvement in Mexico's drugs war, and is likely to upset the Mexican government. More than 42,000 people have been killed in Mexico’s drug feuds since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006. Mexico strongly opposes any U.S. military involvement in its territory, although it has received more than $1 billion in U.S. aid to take on the cartels.
After the speech, the White House said it would continue its "historic level of cooperation with Mexico" to protect people on both sides of the border. The Obama administration currently provides substantial material support to Mexican security forces, as well as close intelligence cooperation.Any deployment of US military forces on Mexican territory would almost certainly be unacceptable to the Mexican authorities.
Mexico lost around half its territory to the US after a war in the 1840s, and has since been very protective of its sovereignty. The US has also deployed National Guard troops to boost border security, and uses pilotless drone aircraft to gather intelligence inside Mexico. Mexican President has been pressing the US to do more to reduce demand for drugs among its citizens and to reduce the flow of weapons from the US to the cartels.
Some commenters say that these remarks appear to be a new misstatement on foreign policy by the Texas governor who is struggling to hold on to the mantle of frontrunner for the Republican nomination. Perry, one of two main Republican contenders to take on President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, has stumbled before on foreign issues. He gave a rambling answer during a debate between candidates last month to a question about what he would do as president if the Taliban got hold of nuclear weapons.
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