MEXICO, THE NEW 'TALIBAN' COUNTRY OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE?

Icheoku says, looking for a Taliban-horror, look no further; and you no longer need to travel to faraway Afghanistan or Iraq or even Pakistan to understand what real horror feels and looks like. Just cross the boarder to the south and you are in a 'Taliban' country of Mexico where drug lords have deployed every imaginable instrument of horror in their terrorism-arsenal to drive home their message and keep ordinary Mexicans guessing as to what comes next.

They have publicly beheaded innocent Mexicans, mass-executed hundreds of Mexicans, lynched many Mexicans, kidnapped and shot several Mexicans including government officials; now the mother of all terrors - death by stoning and one is reminded of the adulterous woman awaiting execution by stoning in Iran. The question that boggles Icheoku is why the western media is not treating the deteriorating situation in Mexico with the seriousness and heightened attention it deserves; but are rather busy pillorying the Middle East, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and at the same time keeping a blind eye in what is going on in our neighborhood , the western hemisphere country of Mexico. What are they waiting for or are they waiting for President Calderon himself to be kidnapped and possibly publicly executed or beheaded for them to focus their attention or beam their searchlight on the atrocities going on in Mexico on its knees and under the jackboot of vicious drug lords. When shall enough really become enough, the world?

Their latest mayhem, the stoning to death of Tancitaro city Mayor Gustavo Sanchez and city adviser Rafael Equihua, whose crushed bodies were found dumped in the back of a pickup truck abandoned on a dirt road near the city of Uruapan; bringing to five the number of government officials that have been slain by these drug cartels within the past one month. Icheoku asks, is the government of Mexico winning this war or are they just engaged in an endless war with vicious murderers who use terror to drive home their message that they are not going away, not anytime soon. The question therefore is how long can the people of Mexico watch their sons and daughters being slaughtered in this manner with a nearly hapless government promising to rein the situation in but to no avail? How long shall the blood-letting last and when is the band-aid coming to stem the bleeding?

It will be recalled that in 2009 the city council chief, Gonzalo Paz, was kidnapped, tortured and eventually murdered; which led to the mass resignation in December of the mayor and seven other town officials following a threat to their lives by drug traffickers. The city police equally stopped coming to work due to fear for their lives as well as that of their families and were all later fired for dereliction of duty and abandonment. The now stoned to death mayor was appointed in January this year to take over from the one that resigned and it would appear that the former's resignation was for a good reason. Icheoku asks, can the government of President Calderon declare these drug infested regions of Mexico ungovernable lawless areas like Western Waziristan and let American marines come in and do the job that needed to be done. Also drones could be deployed to incinerate any armed and dangerous groups not wearing the Mexican armed forces uniform spotted parading there.

With police stations being raided and guards overpowered by armed gangs, stealing automatic rifles and handguns, bombs going off, hospitals invaded and patients tossed from top floors, tens and tens of people bound and massacred, government officials being so brazenly kidnapped and murdered and now Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, becoming one of the most dangerous cities in the world; Icheoku asks, what is the world and the United States in particular waiting before they declare a state of emergency in Mexico's lawless areas and send in the marines to take back those lost territories. It is a national security imperative that we do not harbor or tolerate criminal elements settling down so close our southern boarders as they might after consolidation, start negotiating with Al-Queida terrorists and in partnership, threaten our country. Icheoku says that the drug cartels of Mexico should be treated as the terrorists they are and fought with the same seriousness with which the Talibans and Al-Queida terrorists are being hunted in Western Waziristan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and throughout the world.

With 28,000 Mexican citizens so far killed since 2006 when military crackdown against drug cartels begun, Icheoku says it is time President Felipe Calderon manned up and owned up that his Mexican security forces are not meeting up with the challenges of the present time; and about time, he asked for some help from the big brother to the north. United States marines could use some of their training in Mexico and help arrest the fast deteriorating situation down the boarder where thousands of people are being killed, maimed and kidnapped for ransom on a near-daily basis. What if the mayhem spreads up north across the boarder or should American rather go down now to fight those drug lords in their home turf just as they are fighting the Taliban and Al-Queida in their native turfs of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. Icheoku says, let us take the war on drugs down to them in Mexico now before we are forced to fight them here at home on our own soil. It is a common sensical thing to do and those drug lords are no better than those terrorists we are fighting in various foreign countries since 2001.