Another Proper Use of the Military – Blowing-up Drug Cartels

Last year I posted an article, “The Proper Use of the Military – Killing Pirates.” Some might argue that using trained soldiers to kill outlaws is not a job suitable to their qualifications. Well given how the pirates were running ransack over ships and what not, and considering how much valuable cargo was involved, I think using trained killers was a good way to stop amateur ones.

Well, you don’t read much about these pirates anymore, at least in U.S. newspapers. Don’t know if using U.S. Navy forces combined with other nations has worked, or not, but I don’t see pirate stories on the news. Now you read about the violent drug war. Mexican drug cartels are really upping the levels of violence being used against foes – government and criminal. The traditional police are definitely not up to this war. And the Drug Enforcement Agency, Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, FBI, Mexican military, whoever, seem to be overwhelmed. You’d think with all the highly trained agents, getting rid of some drug cartels wouldn’t be a problem, but not so. These cartels are well financed, and have the guns to protect themselves, as well as inflict severe punishment on those who stand in their way.

So, my recommendation to the U.S. government, use the full ability and force of the United States Department of Defense. Send in the unmanned drones and blow those cartels off the map. We know where they are, so lets get ’em. Let’s use that “winning hearts and minds” strategy in Mexico. Given the damage that hard drugs are doing, why not pull out all the stops? What do we have to lose…some might argue we are losing already.

I really think how the U.S. military is organized needs to be re-assessed anyway. It is bloated and way overdone. We could slim it down so much. It seems China is way ahead of us in this respect. They announced their defense would grow only by 7.5% this year. That is down from 14.5% last year. This is according to the China Daily. On top of that, the Chinese have announced that their military is strictly defensive in capability. Critics will contend that statement, but they haven’t attacked anyone.

Instead of military spending China is spending money on infrastructure – transportation, agricultural, communications, you name it. The goal is to connect China from one end to the next and make sure people can physically access China. I don’t know if that will stem the potential social unrest that is the backdrop of Chinese development, but fixing and upgrading buildings, bridges, rail, and roads probably won’t anger people. As long as it is done well.

The U.S. needs to optimize the military more efficiently, and put the muscle where necessary. Get those F-35s (whenever they are finished) over Mexico and take out the drug cartels. Use the drones to bomb drug lords. Use those Navy Seals in Coronado Bay to run some assassination operations in Mexico. Those would be overnight deployments. Not to mention it would give the Mexican government some relief, and help them regroup. They are using their military, and seem a bit overwhelmed. The U.S. should bring the noise because this drug war is just as much our problem as Mexico’s; We are the marketplace. So, here is another good use for our military. Instead of fighting endless wars in far off lands. Let’s protect our backyard.

Peace

Proper Use of the Military – Killing Pirates

Pirates Abay!

I may have written about this before, but I find myself struck dumb with this whole pirate situation. In discussions with an elder very close to me, I came to realize that we are just simply misusing our military to the Nth degree.

The United States spends like 700 billion U.S. dollars on defense. Most nations on this planet don’t have budgets that large. Yet, we spend that much on defense. We have fleets of nuclear submarines with stealth technology. We have planes that fly at break neck speeds, and can’t be picked up by the most sophisticated radar systems. We have the best special forces troops in the world. We have intelligence agents scattered in places that one couldn’t imagine. One could say there is no where anyone can hide from the U.S. military force. Yet, unsophisticated pirates with pansy-archaic weaponry (by comparison) can hijack supertankers and in no time receive 25 million U.S. dollars in ransom money for the safe return of crew, and maybe cargo. What’s wrong with this picture?

Is it possible to direct some that 700 billion towards eradicating piracy? Instead of using unmanned CIA drones to bomb Afghan villages during weddings, how about using them to bomb the hell out of the pirate enclaves in Somalia.

I’m no military genius, or defense budget guru, but when I hear/read Katie Couric questioning Secretary of Defense Robert Gates about how the Chinese may have “acquired” sensitive information regarding the F-35 joint strike fighter jet, I ask myself, “Are the Chinese hijacking boats in the Indian Ocean….Why are we building F-35s when we should be killing pirates?” I’m not saying we shouldn’t be concerned by the Chinese hacking U.S. military computers, but we should be killing pirates!

So to sum up: Good uses of military might – killing pirates. Bad use of military might – building useless, and very very very expensive, F-35 strike fighters.

F35 Joint Strike Fighter by Lockheed Martin

Peace