Editor’s Note: This week’s PoliceOne First Person essay is from PoliceOne Member David Howe. In PoliceOne “First Person” essays, our Members and Columnists candidly share their own unique view of the world. This is a platform from which individual officers can share their own personal insights on issues confronting cops today, as well as opinions, observations, and advice on living life behind the thin blue line. If you want to share your own perspective with other P1 Members, simply send us an email with your story.
By David Howe
Police1 Special Contributor
I was down in Mexico City meeting with the Mexican Army to discuss needed lightweight tactical headsets for use with their current and future ground radio systems. When discussing needs and applications to identify the best tactical headset products from CJ to use, the term “war” came up. More to the point, “our war” was used in reference to the current war on drugs with the Mexican drug cartels. “You have your war in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have our war within our own countries borders.”
The war on drugs is an actual war. And as with most wars today, including the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the battleground is far different than in prior traditional wars. One interesting point about the wars in Mexico and Afghanistan is that the enemies in both have major fund raising from the citizens of the USA who purchase illegal drugs (a topic all of it’s own). These wars are fought within their own countries borders, with their own citizens as both victims, as well as operatives.
Can this same war cross over the border into the USA?
Leaders of Homeland Security have assured us that our borders are safe. Yet, should you listen to leaders in Texas, you might find some disagreement to that assurance. Reports there note an increased threat that grows more violent every day.
Retired Major-General Robert Scales and retired General Barry McCaffrey co-authored a study called “Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment.” The report claims that ultra-violent Mexican drug cartels are now “brazenly operating” on the U.S. side of the border, and are attempting to establish a “safe zone” 100 miles deep inside the United States to avoid Mexican government efforts to stop them, using Texas as a launch point into the heartland of America to distribute drugs.
As noted by the Mexican military official I was talking to in Mexico City, the term “war” is also brought up by Gen. Scales, who said, “This is not criminal activity, this is a war.” “Texas is the close fight in this war, and it is a fight not just for Texas but for the security of the entire country.” Scales and retired General and former U.S. Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey told a border protection summit Monday that the “ever-expanding tentacles of drug related crime are becoming very worrisome in Texas.”
“The activity of the cartels south of the border and their intentions constitute a narco-terrorist war, and their intentions are very clear. To build a sanctuary one county deep inside the United States.”
“In a curious twist of irony, the more successful the Mexican military becomes in confronting the cartels, the greater likelihood that cartels will take the active fight into Texas as they compete against each other in the battle to control distribution territories and corridors,” the report states.
The answer then is, it already has.
I was pleased that we were able to assist the Mexican Army with its’ lightweight tactical headset requirements. We received our first order for the CJ Falcon Lightweight Tactical Headsets, which have been delivered. We support the efforts of the Mexican Army on their war, the war on drugs, which affects us all.
A copy of the Texas Border Security report on can be downloaded here.
