While we should remain focused the problems that unchecked illegal immigration from Mexico brings to our country, we shouldn’t forget the reasons why they are leaving their country in droves. The freebies we hand out aren’t helping, but running the risk of getting caught in a fire fight has got to have a little something to do with it.
A bit further along, we find out that
According to the Mexican attorney general’s office, there have been 101 grenade attacks against government buildings in the past 3 1/2 years….
Gee, those numbers kind of suck. Especially compared to the number of grenade attacks in the US, land of the open air arms bazaar (if you believe the Brady Bunch).
I was waiting for the Post to point out that the grenades were purchased at gun shows throughout the United States (I want a list!), but no, I was disappointed.
Sent a generation ago to battle communist revolutionaries in the jungles of Central America, U.S. grenades are being diverted from dusty old armories and sold to criminal mafias, who are using them to destabilize the Mexican government and terrorize civilians, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials.
But wait, this is all the fault of Republicans!
The administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush sent 300,000 hand grenades to friendly regimes in Central America to fight leftist insurgents in the civil wars of the 1980s and early 1990s….
Ah, my faith in the mainstream media is restored. Of course, we don’t mention that it isn’t the fault of Reagan or Bush that this flow of grenades is being perpetrated by the corrupt governments in the countries the arms were sent to. Oh no….
We also have a mention of the mythical flow of AR-15/M-16 (they can’t make up their minds; probably mentioning both just to cover their bases) from the US to Mexico. And we still disappointingly don’t mention the mythical “gun show loophole” either. (Somewhere at the Post, a copy editor must have fallen asleep.)
The redeployment of U.S.-made grenades by Mexican drug lords underscores the increasingly intertwined nature of the conflict, as President Felipe Calderón sends his soldiers out to confront gangs armed with a deadly combination of brand-new military-style assault rifles purchased in the United States and munitions left over from the Cold War.
Oddly enough, the picture accompanying the article shows Mexican Federal Police armed with what appear to be either AR-15s or M-16s. An don’t tell me the Mexican Army doesn’t have hand grenades–after all, they are available for “$100 to $500 apiece on the black market”, sayeth the Post. If they are outgunned and/or intimidated by the firepower they’re facing, they need to talk to their government.
Smart-ass comments aside, we need to remember that we have a “failing state” on our southern border. Barring some major changes, it will become a failed state. If you think illegal immigration is a problem now, wait and see what it becomes if that comes to pass. Because the drug gangs don’t recognize international borders. At least here they will face some folks who have not been disarmed and who know how to shoot.