Pentagon Confirms My Story on Mexico Attacks
Military will “eliminate the ability of these cartels to threaten” America, spokesman says
Today the Pentagon confirmed my reporting from yesterday that the military is preparing for strikes on cartels operating in Mexico.
In the world of how the military speaks publicly, it’s a B-52 sized confirmation. The Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, a Trump appointee, was pressured to respond to the story after other reporters asked about its veracity. I’ll parse what he said in a moment.
First, here’s how Parnell responded when asked by the Daily Mail about my story:
The Department of Defense will undoubtedly play an important role towards meeting the President’s objective to eliminate the ability of these cartels to threaten the territory, safety, and security of the United States and its people.
These cartels have engaged in historic violence and terror throughout our Hemisphere—and around the globe—that has destabilized economies and internal security of countries but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs.
The phrase “undoubtedly play” is the public affairs equivalent of saying what I wrote was accurate. The characterization of cartels as a grave threat also affirms the blah, blah, blah we will inevitably hear if such strikes materialize.
Another statement attributed to an unnamed Defense Department spokesperson said simply: “The Department of Defense will not comment on future operations considering operational security.”
Future operations? Not operational matters? So there are future operations, and talking about them would imperil “operational security.” Not even a “President Trump has stressed whatever and the military is ready to carry out the president’s orders,” the kind of wishy washy, ‘Don’t ask me, I just work here’ language I’d normally expect.
Typically, the Pentagon’s response to requests for comment is, well, not this. Sometimes they’ll just decline to comment, as they did in The New York Times’ earlier story about Trump’s directive for the use of force against the cartels. “The Defense Department declined to comment on the new directive,” the Pentagon told NYT. Often they’ll just revert to pablum like, “the Defense Department is tirelessly monitoring the cartel situation.” Or if they’re really trying to throw cold water on a story, they would say something like, “The Department of Defense remains committed to its partnership with Mexico, including respect for its territorial sovereignty.”
In Parnell’s statement, the use of the word “eliminate” also stands out, a striking choice given other, squishier Pentagon favorites like “degrade.”
I’ve been doing this kind of work for about a decade and have never gotten a confirmation like this before.
It’s gratifying to see that I’m able to have this kind of impact from a small, two-person newsletter funded by a bunch of ordinary people giving me ten bucks a month. (Join us and subscribe if you’re able!) The whole point of this work, to me, is to have an impact on the public debate and ultimately policy. When the Drudge Report showcased my article yesterday and today, they asked whether Congress would intervene. Maybe now at least they’d notice.
— Edited by William M. Arkin
Notably, Trump has done nothing with regard to NAFTA that alleviates the massive negative impact that it, and other trade agreements, have had on Mexican domestic agriculture - and - largely due to NAFTA there is almost no other form of income remotely approaching the economic influx from the drug trade for the regions in which the cartels operate openly. Engaging in a 'hot war' on these regions would endanger many civilians, including those only loosely (or not by choice) affiliated with the cartels and would destroy the local economies where most of the money coming in is in one way or another connected to the drug trade. Don't give me any bullshit about "precision strikes" or "targeted raids" either. This is the Trump administration we're talking about here.
So, whether they realize it or not, they're talking about a "War on Terror" style Yemen-ifying or Iraq-ifying, if not fully Gaza-fying large swaths of interior and coastal Mexico. You wanna talk about "blowback"? Think about it. They'll create opportunities and incentives for not just active cartel members, but other Mexican citizens, to undertake armed resistance there, and likely guerilla or "terrorist" tactics elsewhere in the hemisphere.
In short, this will be a disaster which will have long-term ramifications not just in Mexico, but here in the US. And besides, I thought Trumpists and conservatives understood "the market." There would be no cartels supplying drugs in the first place if Americans didn't demand the f*ck out of them.
Congratulations on the recognition!
Instead of using military BANG! POW! why not have US Customs hone in on arms smuggling across our border to Mexico. For years Mexico President Sheinbaum and her predecessors have been asking for US help to stop the arms smuggling but to no avail.