Mexican Drug War Deaths Now Outnumber US Losses in Iraq 5-to-1

A lot of Americans don't grasp the full magnitude of the gruesome omni-lateral Mexican drug war right on our doorstep, though recent sensational killings near resort areas and kidnapping of tourists have begun to bring the reality.

Since Mexican President Felippe Calderone declared war on the vicious cartels that have a choke-hold on his country in 2007, fatalities have steadily mounted- officially at 10,000 dead (US fatalities in Iraq cca 4400).  But the AP and LA Times now report confidential Mexican government figures of over 22,000 dead... and that's just three years... we've been in Iraq for seven.

The government has deployed 45,000 Mexican Army troops and 5,000 Federales in an attempt to take the fight to the enemy in the provinces as the war continues to spread- this compares to 98,000 US troops currently in Iraq. And if you found Iraqi factions complex, and the methods savage...

With fronts multiplying and violence coming to even heavily-defended resort areas and the formerly peaceful Morelos state, bodies are showing-up hung from overpasses, chopped up and mixed-together in plastic garbage bags, or simply in piles of corpses, piles of heads, or piles of  headless corpses next to the road with a note attached to taunt their rivals. Every time the Mexican Army captures a major druglord, an all-out inter-and/or-intra cartel war ensues in the battle to inherit the turf... with predictably ghastly results. Drug cartels are also increasingly brazen in direct attacks on the Mexican Army, recently employing armored cars and grenade launchers in concert with sophisticated tactics of maneuver.

Things look to be getting a lot worse down there before the corner is turned... if ever.  More today at LA Times online. 


Update: Bungalow Bill's got a good point about how you don't hear much re. the gravity of the sitation at and south of the border in the midst of Obama's immigration reform push -here-

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-photo credits France24, ibtimes.com, chart Mexico.vg-

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