h/t to our friend The Sojourner, for referencing the site from which this article was found, which helped to focus a perspective on this issue.
Sadly, the (near forgotten) “war on drugs” has, of late, taken a step towards the surreal. The basics are pretty easily understood: The insatiable US (and, more generally “western”) demand for recreational drugs, undinted by prohibition efforts here and abroad, continues to feed a systemic global gangterism that, in many places, has utterly decimated and corrupted both sovereign authority and national security, spreading to a such an extent that the death toll near the US-Mexican border far and away exceeds that accruing in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
You might say, “it’s kind of big deal”. But, unfortunately, it gets worse. While some may argue, reasonably enough, that prohibition always fosters the criminal enterprise, others will attempt to spin the story in such a way as to promote ever more prohibition. This perspective, oddly enough, is typically promoted by the very same folks that continue to refuse to address our own, more generic, border security issues, namely (though not exclusively) the American Political Left.
Thus, while subjecting millions of law-abiding American “sheeple” to the humiliating rigors of full-body scanners at the airport, the border, along with our ports, remains an open sieve, allowing the barely constrained passage of illegal aliens, drugs, money, and now,presumably, guns.
Undeterred by clear evidence that US purchased weapons (usually stolen) represent a distinctly minor share of the Mexican Narco arsenal, our government has, apparently, seen fit to help boost these figures. Even the reported flow of US government supplied weapons to the cartels, via foreign governments, isn’t enough, oh no.
That, you see, doesn’t really help to advance the gun-control agenda. No, the only thing that would really help to justify yet more prohibitive regulation of US gun rights would be evidence that American gun laws are so lax as to facilitate the business of gun running to supply the drug cartels. And, well, if it simply isn’t true, make it true.
And so, we have “Project Gunrunner“, a creation of the US BATFE, a program that has facilitated the illegal buying and subsequent export of thousands of guns to Mexican gangs. Why? Hey, you tell me and we’ll both know. All that can be said (with almost numbing regularity about almost any government “solution”), is that, even under the best of circumstances….where the goals might, given the right degree of spin, be construed as laudable, there are going to be significantly unpleasant side-effects.
But, then, when the “official” agenda of that same government actually benefits from those “unintended consequences”, you simply have to wonder whether or not it’s just another scam. Well, don’t you? If you don’t, I’ve got a few banks in mind that could really use your “help”.
Harry Tuttle
PS – Update, as of November 22, 2011. Well, as most readers may know, the past several months have led to some biggish (and scandalous) developments in what is now being referred to as “Operation Fast and Furious” ….beginning with continuing outrage over the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and, it seems, possibly, perjury on the part of Attorney General Eric Holder regarding what he knew about the operation and when he knew it. Don’t know about you, but I’m still holding my breath to see if/when we’ll discover that the real purpose of the whole operation was to bolster claims that lax US gun laws was contributing to drug violence in the border regions.
A Reasonable Life 
Drugs, Guns, Money, Misdirection
h/t to our friend The Sojourner, for referencing the site from which this article was found, which helped to focus a perspective on this issue.
Sadly, the (near forgotten) “war on drugs” has, of late, taken a step towards the surreal. The basics are pretty easily understood: The insatiable US (and, more generally “western”) demand for recreational drugs, undinted by prohibition efforts here and abroad, continues to feed a systemic global gangterism that, in many places, has utterly decimated and corrupted both sovereign authority and national security, spreading to a such an extent that the death toll near the US-Mexican border far and away exceeds that accruing in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
You might say, “it’s kind of big deal”. But, unfortunately, it gets worse. While some may argue, reasonably enough, that prohibition always fosters the criminal enterprise, others will attempt to spin the story in such a way as to promote ever more prohibition. This perspective, oddly enough, is typically promoted by the very same folks that continue to refuse to address our own, more generic, border security issues, namely (though not exclusively) the American Political Left.
Thus, while subjecting millions of law-abiding American “sheeple” to the humiliating rigors of full-body scanners at the airport, the border, along with our ports, remains an open sieve, allowing the barely constrained passage of illegal aliens, drugs, money, and now,presumably, guns.
Undeterred by clear evidence that US purchased weapons (usually stolen) represent a distinctly minor share of the Mexican Narco arsenal, our government has, apparently, seen fit to help boost these figures. Even the reported flow of US government supplied weapons to the cartels, via foreign governments, isn’t enough, oh no.
That, you see, doesn’t really help to advance the gun-control agenda. No, the only thing that would really help to justify yet more prohibitive regulation of US gun rights would be evidence that American gun laws are so lax as to facilitate the business of gun running to supply the drug cartels. And, well, if it simply isn’t true, make it true.
And so, we have “Project Gunrunner“, a creation of the US BATFE, a program that has facilitated the illegal buying and subsequent export of thousands of guns to Mexican gangs. Why? Hey, you tell me and we’ll both know. All that can be said (with almost numbing regularity about almost any government “solution”), is that, even under the best of circumstances….where the goals might, given the right degree of spin, be construed as laudable, there are going to be significantly unpleasant side-effects.
But, then, when the “official” agenda of that same government actually benefits from those “unintended consequences”, you simply have to wonder whether or not it’s just another scam. Well, don’t you? If you don’t, I’ve got a few banks in mind that could really use your “help”.
Harry Tuttle
PS – Update, as of November 22, 2011. Well, as most readers may know, the past several months have led to some biggish (and scandalous) developments in what is now being referred to as “Operation Fast and Furious” ….beginning with continuing outrage over the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and, it seems, possibly, perjury on the part of Attorney General Eric Holder regarding what he knew about the operation and when he knew it. Don’t know about you, but I’m still holding my breath to see if/when we’ll discover that the real purpose of the whole operation was to bolster claims that lax US gun laws was contributing to drug violence in the border regions.
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