What if we send U.S. SpecOps Against the Cartels?
BY Herschel Smith
1 day, 15 hours ago
I’ve run across several professional (former) SpecOps who caution against this approach. For example, there is this example, and then this example with Andy Stumpf and Mike Glover.
So in brief, here is what I think. The gangs appear to me to be toothless when faced with ICE and DEA agents. I understand that the more professional cartel fighters in Mexico are much worse, but as long as SpecOps has means of ingress and egress (insertion and extraction), and strictly follows their protocols, I think the cartel fighters will fold like a cheap suit.
I think if we do this, it should be MARSOC and Delta (“The Unit”). The SEALs will have their hands full with other things: Panama.
But what do I know?
On January 28, 2025 at 9:22 pm, Ozark Redneck said:
Why not just drone strike them? Designated terrorists… killed 100s of thousand of US citizens with fentanyl over the years. Close enough to kill them from the CONUS. I think the Mexican politicians who are all on the take will be the ones who shout and scream no. Destroy the fentanyl factories, the docks and ships who bring them….
On January 28, 2025 at 9:31 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
A great deal of the uncertainly about which approach to take stems from the status of Mexico City itself. Would U.S. forces inside the country be treated as friendly, hostile, or something else? Would the U.S. cooperate with the Mexican Army or find themselves facing off against it?
A little more than a century ago, when General John “Black Jack” Pershing and U.S. Army Forces under his command undertook the so-called “Punitive Expedition” of 1916-1917, in order to track down Mexican bandito Pancho Villa, Mexico had been in the throes of revolution since around 1906, and the turmoil worsened around 1910. The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps had landed at Vera Cruz in 1914, a previous intervention.
The history of Mexico during this period is quite complex and beyond the scope of this comment. The key take-away is that when U.S. forces intervened, they did so with the approval of the Mexican government, but when that government fell due to a coup, its replacement was opposed to American intervention. The handover of the U.S. Presidency from William Howard Taft to Woodrow Wilson only complicated matters.
Which is how U.S. Cavalry forces – the 10th Cavalry, to be specific – found themselves in battle not against Pancho Villa, but against the Mexican regulars of General Felix Gomez, on 21 June 1916 at the Battle of Carrizal. Only prompt diplomatic intervention prevented full-scale war between Mexico and the U.S.
The following year, Imperial Germany attempted to entice Mexico into WW1 on the side of Germany in the Zimmerman Telegram Affair, which heightened tensions even further between Mexico City and Washington, and helped fuel the U.S. entry into the Great War.
The larger point is that the U.S. may stir up a real hornet’s nest if it isn’t careful.
On January 28, 2025 at 9:50 pm, X said:
Going into Mexico didn’t work out so well for Pershing 109 years ago.
BTW research how he became known as “Black Jack”… a rather politically-incorrect tale, LOL.
On January 28, 2025 at 11:14 pm, Steve Miller said:
Forget it Jake it’s the Khazarians again Tel Aviv controls our congress military and everything else. The typical pattern involves protecting a chosen cartel and looking the other way while the cartel takes out its competitors
On January 29, 2025 at 2:00 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
@X
Re: “BTW research how he became known as “Black Jack”… a rather politically-incorrect tale, LOL.”
“Politically-incorrect”? Ooohh, I like it…
Pershing was famous for his hardcore stance against the Moros during the Philippine Insurrection (1898-1913). The Moro tribes, Islamic fanatics and holdouts in the southern islands of the nation, proved to be very difficult to root out. Pershing let it be known that any Moro warrior slain on the battlefield and recovered by the U.S. would be buried not according to Islamic custom and law, but in a grave filled with pig entrails. Swine are considered unholy and unclean by Muslims, so you can do the math on that one.
Pershing also instructed his men to coat their rifle and handgun bullets in the fat of pigs, again for the same effect.
Whether these tactics proved to be decisive is unknown, but not long afterward, the last resistance in the islands laid down its arms.
Pershing was one of only a handful of men ever to rise to five-star or “General of the Armies” rank during his distinguished career. He trained a generation of leading lights who followed in his footsteps. No one has attained that rank for more than sixty years. If memory serves, Omar Bradley was the last to be so honored.
On January 29, 2025 at 5:49 am, Mark Matis said:
Well, Georgiaboy61, Patton SHOULD have been so honored.
But after the war, he said we fought on the wrong side. He was correct, which is why they had him murdered.
On January 29, 2025 at 7:22 am, jrg said:
I agree with Ozark Redneck above – drone strike (the sword very specific model) used on high value criminal targets were enough to convince Al Qaida who started at every overhead cast shadow that stopping at least temporarily would be highly recommended. Putting a bounty for information leading to their capture or whereabouts would also worry them and their families. Plenty of competitors – enemies would gladly turn them in for bounty $$$. Hitting several targets in short time will give notice the U.S. means business.
Will it STOP cartels ? No, someone would fill in the vacuum, but with the understanding that they could also become targeted as well.
I do not recommend any military incursions into Mexico. They will become a common enemy of both honest and criminal Mexican population.
On January 29, 2025 at 9:06 am, Grapestone said:
Addiction is demand-driven, not supply-driven.
On January 29, 2025 at 9:12 am, Grapestone said:
The addiction problem in the USA will not be affected for more than a day or two … even if Mexico, China, and Afghanistan disappeared tomorrow. Why? Because alternative sources will emerge, quickly — natural-grown, and lab•grown.
On January 29, 2025 at 11:01 am, Ken said:
No US troops south of the border. You cannot fix Mexico or any of the other Latin countries. The only way to stop the harm to the US is to close the border. Tight as a drum. Stop everything. Mexicans send billions south every year. Billions more in drug money. Mexico is a failed state that exist today only because of the US. Best to just build a ten mile kill zone Gulf to Pacific. Navy stopping all the boats/ships trying to end run the border. Turn back or get sunk. Make Mexico and the other Latin countries fix themselves. Maybe then, carefully, open the border a little.
On January 29, 2025 at 11:38 am, ragman said:
Ken , you’re exactly right! Stop the remittance to Mexico, which was over 63 billion in 2023 and this problem would end overnight. Mexico would fold like a cheap suit.
On January 29, 2025 at 12:37 pm, Grapestone said:
Drugs of all types get in to SuperMax prisons.
Which are locked tight as drum.
All the time.
Every day.
Addiction is demand-driven, not supply-driven.
If demand for drugs is not reduced, then the problems fester and grow.
On January 29, 2025 at 1:55 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ Mark Matis
Re: “Patton SHOULD have been so honored.”
No argument there. The man was a brilliant battlefield tactician and strategist, but he was ill-suited to playing the kinds of games they play at HQ. Specifically, he spoke his mind far-too-often and didn’t suffer fools. He did have a big mouth, though, and was too fond of the sound of his own voice. Both can detrimental to the fortunes of a career soldier. He only needed to look at the success of his former subordinate, Omar Bradley, who ended up out-ranking him. Bradley knew how to take an order – even ones he didn’t like – and he knew when to button his lip.
George Patton suffered some of the same problems with higher authority as his counterpart half a world away, namely Douglas MacArthur. Both men paid for talking to the press and making statements they were not authorized to make. Like it or not, the chain of command is baked into the cake of military life. Both of them knew that, or should have.
On January 29, 2025 at 3:12 pm, Grunt said:
The recent activities in Iraq, and Baghdad as well as Afghanistan have been forgotten already?? Why are we are so prone to make the same mistakes time and time again. It baffles one of even medium intellelgance.
On January 29, 2025 at 4:54 pm, PGF said:
I don’t know Mr. Smith. The cartel reps in the US fold easily because in the larger picture overly provoking the ire of the US here would interrupt the money flow. Don’t lose sight; the cartels operate militarily but the object is money. If the US decides to go against the cartels inside Mexico that’s tantamount to an invasion of their territory and now you will have done more than cut a few domestic cash flow channels. I say they’d fight, and fight well. It’s their land; they own the locals, resources, logistics, terrain, decision loop, etc. I predict, that even if the US were to win every battle she’d lose the war.
America didn’t have a widespread hard drug problem before fatherlessness. The cartels aren’t the problem, they’re just exploiting a ripe market.
On January 29, 2025 at 6:09 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@Grunt
Re: “The recent activities in Iraq, and Baghdad as well as Afghanistan have been forgotten already?? Why are we are so prone to make the same mistakes time and time again.”
What do you mean by “we,” kemosabe?
If you’ll forgive me cracking wise, my point is that the people didn’t gin up this idea; the inside-the-beltway crowd did. There’s no “we” in it as far as they’re concerned. It isn’t their sons and daughters, brothers, uncles, etc. risking their necks and it certainly isn’t them.
As ever, “War is a racket” – one whose costs are measured in blood, but whose profits are measured in dollars.
The man responsible for the quote about war being a racket was two-time Medal of Honor recipient General Smedley D. Butler, U.S.M.C. – one of the most-decorated Marines in history. Butler (1881-1940), who served from 1898-1931, retired as the highest-ranking Marine in China when he was passed over for Commandant of the Corps.
Butler reflected in his retirement that he’d actually served the interests of Wall St. and big money at least as much as he had the people or the nation. He became something of a pacifist and wrote “War is a Racket” and then set out on a nation-wide speaking tour.
Butler says in the book – which is still in print, by the way – that there are legitimate causes for which to fight; he names two in the book – the protection of one’s family, home and community, and for the protection of the Bill of Rights.
The inside-the-beltway elites, however, do not regard “wars without end” as a mistake at all; they see such a status quo as the best means by which to rake in big profits or to get that next big promotion or star on one’s shoulder. They have no skin in the game, so why should they care what happens to the grunts?
Getting back to the cartels, does anyone else remember how they got started in the first place? If you are old-enough to remember the 1970s and Nixon’s “War on Drugs,” that was the watershed which super-charged the growth of the narcotics cartels, first in Colombia, and then later in Mexico. Prohibition movements don’t work, and worse still, they tend to create formidable criminal super-organizations along the lines of the mafia or the cartels.
Just as the era of alcohol prohibition created and fueled the explosive growth of the Sicilian Mafia back in the 1920s and early 1930s, the war on drugs did for the narcotics cartels.
Because I have family not far from the border, I try to follow events pretty closely, if possible. Reports say that in recent years, the cartels have become so formidable that they outgun and outmatch the Mexican Federal Police. Only the Mexican military is capable of standing up to them in a conventional fight.
About a decade ago, a rancher in S. Arizona uncovered a huge weapons cache on his land. He called the authorities, of course, and once the entire cache was uncovered, it was found to contain sufficient arms, ammunition, equipment, high-tech gear, and ordnance to arm a company of infantry.
In addition to individual small arms weapons, it contained crew-served weapons such as general-purpose machine guns and mortars, and also Claymore Mines and other explosives; night-vision and IR vision gear, body armor, encrypted comms gear and much else.
The cartels in recent years have been known to send some of their men into conventional military forces – including those of Mexico and the U.S. – in order to get the most up-to-date training in weapons, tactics, war-fighting doctrine, etc.
This is what our boys would be up against if it comes to a fight….
On January 30, 2025 at 9:23 am, george 1 said:
I remember listening to Bill O’Reilly when he was with FOX, confidently claim that when U.S. forces move in to take out Saddam Hussein, the Iraq population would be with us. He even said they would cheer and shower our soldiers with flowers.
If we were to do such a thing the population of Mexico would not see us as liberating them from the cartels. They would see us as invaders. Mexico would unite against us and they would enlist the help of the Chinese toward that end. As the conflict progressed the cartels and possibly Mexican Government operatives would conduct guerilla operations in the U.S. Also, in 2025, America is just not that competent anymore when it comes to this kind of operation. The military has deteriorated and it will not be turned around quickly.
This is all not to say that we should not take action. It could very well turn out that we are forced to take action and have no choice. We just need to be sober and prepared with regard to the consequences.
On January 30, 2025 at 10:31 am, Randolph Scott said:
I vote for the drone method with the steel border wall maned by US Soldiers with shoot to klill tresspassers. Let the Feds take care of the criminals in the US and let the Military keep the criminals out with deadly force. After the first week the peasants will stop trying to enter.