Do GOP Candidates Advocate Going to War With Mexico?

Usually I write something about my entry into the United States Marine Corps 59 years ago today, but I saw this from the New York Times. every candidate in the ever-expanding field of Republicans in the 2024 race for the presidency is suggesting committing acts of war against Mexico.

According to reporting from the New York Times Republicans want to either BOMB Mexico or send troops into Mexico to stop the drug cartels. Ron DeSantis thinks we should have a blockade of Mexican ports and use deadly force against the men, women and children coming across the border

These suggestions are all acts of war.

Mexico has been one of our strongest allies for years — decades — and now we want to bomb Mexico and kill people coming across their border with the U.S.? In the HBO program Succession the patriarch of the Roy family, Logan Roy (Played brilliantly by Brian Cox), tells his four children why he doesn’t want any of them to lead the company he founded, “I love you, but you’re not serious people.”

First of all, the drug trade doesn’t start in Mexico or any other Latin American nation. It starts at home. The best first step to solve our nation’s drug problems is to lower the demand for illegal drugs, with treatment programs and a legalization of these substances, starting with cannabis, but also cocaine and opioids.

If addicts want these drugs, some of which are available legally through prescriptions, have them dispensed by a licensed pharmacist who can also suggest and advocate modes of treatment and recovery. More than 20 states have now fully legalized cannabis and many others allow cannabis for medicinal purposes. We should just end ambiguity of our hodge-podge marijuana laws and make it fully legal, like we do alcohol and tobacco.

Basically, we end the drug war — on our side of the border.

Open Society Foundations had this in a recent report:  between the federal government and the individual states, we are spending over $127 billion per year on the drug war. For what? Open Societies said, “Despite increased resources directed to supply-side enforcement, evidence suggests that drug prices, while remaining far higher than legal commodities, have decreased over the past three decades. From 1990 to 2005, for instance, the wholesale price of heroin fell by 77 percent in Europe and 71 percent in the US.”

Drug interdiction DOES NOT WORK. Education and treatment do work.

Something else to consider: this “war” on brown-skinned immigrants: it’s causing huge problems for the businesses that rely on these immigrants. Those industries, like farming and construction, are having trouble hiring people to do these jobs. The negative impact on the economy runs into the billions of dollars per year.

Here’s another thing: millions of Americans love going to Mexico for vacations. The ancient Mayan ruins are very popular, along with all the beach and resort communities, like Cabo San Lucas, Cancun, Cozumel, Puerto Escondido (for surfing) and Tulum, to name a few. Would these Republican geniuses put a stop to U.S. citizens going to Mexico for vacation? Spring Break? Where can Ted Cruz sneak off to the next time his state has an infrastructure meltdown?

Logan Roy can best put it to the field of GOP candidates running for president: “You’re not serious people.”

So, on this date in 1974 I raised my right hand and took the oath.

“I, Timothy Forkes, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the president of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”

Semper Fi my friends.