Mexico's Problem With Drug Cartel Warrants United States Military Intervention

Con has refuted as well as offered counter-plans; however, they will not stop the drug cartel as I will explain: "Counterplan One: Legalize drugs Advantage one: Crime related to the drug trade goes away. This is obvious..if we legalize drugs there will be no drug war to fight. Advantage two: Increase revenue No longer having to fight the drug war leads to resources being freed up to pay off the debt, or to increase military spending." First of all, the drug cartel has evolved and are seeking large ransoms from other crimes, including kidnapping. According to law enforcement in Phoenix, AZ, they had to assemble a new unit just to, "Investigate kidnappings related to drug and human smuggling. In the last two years, the city has recorded some 700 cases, some involving people held against their will in stash houses and others abducted." [1] Second, legalizing drugs would not stop the cartels involvement with them. The cartel would likely still be involved with the drugs once they were legal, much like the organized crime in the United States was involved with alcohol after Prohibition was repealed. Legalizing drugs in the United States would not stop the cartels but only create a larger issues in the US. Look at prescription medication, which is a drug and is legal, but is an ever-increasing problem. Damien Cave writes, "Florida Medical Examiners Commission found that the rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs was three times the rate of deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined." [2] It's hard to imagine that having access to heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, etc would not only make it easier to overdose but be a catalyst for other harmful behaviors due to impaired judgement. "Counterplan two: Border fence Advantage one: Keeps Cartels out of the U.S. Obvious, the fence and guards on the fence prevents crossings and prevent drug cartels being able to sell their drugs. Another advantage would come from keeping out illegals." A border fence is not going to stop the illegal drugs that come through by vehicles, through the air, or by sea which is is how the majority of the drugs from Mexico find their way into the United States. Additionally, the border fence has failed to stop the drugs and immigrants that are tunneling their way under the fence. "Nuclear war is bad, and U.S. authorities being tied down in Mexico or on the border instead of searching and destroying nuclear materiel leads to an increased chance of nuclear war, and possibly extinction." Yes, nuclear war is bad; however, all of our resources are not and should not be tied down in searching and destroying nuclear material. This is completely irrelevant and totally contradicts Con's concern about increasing US hegemony by being in Mexico. US hegemony would increase much more by having all our authorities searching and destroying nuclear materials from other nations as doing so would dub us the controlling nation of nuclear material. "Counterplan three: Execute all foreign nationals caught with illicit substances in their possession" It is ridiculous to think we can kill any illegal in our country with illicit drugs. Speaking of US hegemony, what do you the perception of the US would be when the rest of the world sees us killing someone with a gram of marijuana? Besides, the cartels are ruthless and many smugglers are in the trade for fear of their life and that of their loved ones due to threats by the cartel. In response to Con's refutations: "Why the military, why the U.S.? Are we responsible for Mexico now?" No we are not responsible for Mexico; however, we are responsible for our own citizens and their safety. Now that the cartels violence is harming the US we have to intervene to protect our people as the Mexican Govt certainly is not doing so. The majority of the cartels weapons come from the Mexican Govt which the United States provided. As stated before abductions are on the rise here among other crimes and are directly related to the cartels. 1. http://www.nytimes.com... 2. http://www.nytimes.com...