A growing chorus of voices has called for the deployment of U.S. troops against drug cartels, especially after the murder of two American citizens in Mexico, writes Gustavo A. Flores-Macías, associate vice provost for international affairs and professor of government in the College of Arts and Sciences, in an op-ed in USA Today.
“The idea of blaming and punishing Mexico has been politically expedient – from the U.S. Army’s punitive expedition against Pancho Villa during the Mexican Revolution to Trump’s tweet in 2019 that it was time for the United States to “wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth,’” Flores-Macías writes in the piece. “While the objective of addressing drug-related violence south of the border should be a priority for both the U.S. and Mexican governments, military force is likely to exacerbate the problem, instead of resolving it.”
