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PaperclipPerfector  10d ago (text post)   35672 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 20, 2025

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I think that the incentives of the cartels are pretty unlike the incentives of jihadist Palestinians.

In particular, provoking the opposed government into a violent response is good strategy for jihadists, but a terrible strategy for the cartels.

When the cartels start firing rockets over the US border, you have my blessings to bomb their launch sites (if Mexico is unable or unwilling to put a stop to that).

When forces of the Mexico government overcome your border defenses and start massacring your citizens, you have my blessings to turn Mexico into Gaza in a futile attempt to enforce a regime change.

Neither provocation will happen. The cartels like the status quo, especially the part where they are not getting bombed. The US government (presumably) likes the part where they are not criticized for accepting tremendous civilian casualties in their military operations (for a change). This is one of the cases where military confrontation would make things worse for both sides.

I mean, if you want to task the CIA with taking out cartel bosses without killing innocent bystanders (think snipers, not hellfire missiles), I guess I would be ok with that? I am however not positive that it would work, seems like even the hellfire variant did not really defeat the Taliban.

I think that less flashy responses, like trying to limit the amount of arms smuggling from the US into Mexico, plus having law enforcement counter the cartels when they operate on US soil, are likely more effective to counter spreading cartel influence.

I think that less flashy responses, like trying to limit the amount of arms smuggling from the US into Mexico, plus having law enforcement counter the cartels when they operate on US soil, are likely more effective to counter spreading cartel influence.

Yes, but these don’t let Greg Abbott campaign on having taken the gloves off.

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