Clinton: Mexico Violence Could "Mushroom"

(CBS)  CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan reports that the U.S. Secretary of State came to Mexico this week with a very deliberate message: that America is partly to blame for Mexico's crime wave and the war against the drug cartels.

"We have to recognize and accept that the demand for drugs from the United States drives them north," Clinton told Logan, "and the guns that are used by the drug cartels against the police and the military - 90 percent of them come from America."

Those guns are being used in bloodshed that has left a trail of bodies in Mexico's border cities - right on America's doorstep.

Asked whether she thought the issue posed a present security threat to the United States, Clinton said, "No. What I think is that it has to be stopped now."

That sense of urgency is fueled in part by the possibility that terrorists could take advantage of the chaos and join forces with Mexico's drug cartels.

"We saw it in Colombia, where the insurgents made friends with the drug traffickers. We're seeing it in Afghanistan. We're watching the poppy trade help to fuel al Qaeda and Taliban extremists there," Clinton told CBS News.

"We know that where huge amounts of money are involved and ruthless people without conscience or morals are involved, we have to be quick to respond and recognize that left unchecked, this could, you know, mushroom," she added.

Clinton rejected outright the idea that Mexico was in danger of becoming a failed state, but she acknowledged that the drug cartels were better armed than Mexico's military.

America's top diplomat has been well-received in Mexico, where many feel the problem of the cross-border drugs and arms trafficking is finally getting the attention it deserves.

[Bullfighter11]

Use NATO troops to guard our borders.

Then, when Mexicans force their way into the US, Mexico will be starting a war with 26 countries instead of just one.

We helped them. It's time for NATO to help us.

[thetireguy1]

Where was our military when millions of illegals walked across our boarders?
i say to stop illegals from causing more problems in America, stop all buses that travel
to other states require photo Id if you don't have one then you should be stopped at
point A and then returned to your homeland, not freely traveling around America!
Drugs and illegals are now our problem and its time we stop it in their tracks!!!

[clark_w]

Check the serial numbers of these weapons! That will tell us all we need to know.

[formrusmcsgt]

Despite billions spent over several decades, the drugs continue to come across the border.

As long as they are contraband, trafficing will continue regardless of how much more we waste trying to stop it.

[noloyalisti]

quawpawsix is exactly right about the witch hunt. This is yet another lame attempt by the big corporate media to demonize people. To make a bunch of people frightened so they can be manipulated again like the brainless Bush neo conservative crime family did.

[quapawsix]

Sounds like Big Brother to me[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[
Stronger Gun Control Laws, Fingerprint owners pryor to gun purchase,
Set up a national database including Ballistics tests pryor to selling.
Once the Legal Purchaser becomes a convicted felon, he forfeits his right to bear arms
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

[noloyalisti]

I thought that the embarrassment of Bushoccio suspended Posse Comitatus. And a lot of the troops in the military occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq are National Guard who could help at the border.

[quapawsix]

The witch hunt continues

[noloyalisti]

America created a lot of this problem by passing NAFTA. Also we backed yet another right winger president to follow a failed capitalistic rape of foreign countries.

And what are we doing sending thousands of troops halfway around the world to two failed quagmires when we have this problem right here?

[1American]

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traced 7,500 weapons seized in Mexican drug raids - many them AK-47-type rifles - back to the United States...'
LawyersGuns-n-Money

BATF's Statistics have been proven false too many times for me to take them at face value. They are just like any other Govt. Agency, willing to lie their backside off to justify their existance. You're going to have to do better than that.