Jeebus. Americans have been attacked by drug cartels, bravs. You justify meddling in the ME when there are big problems closer to home. And IMO we shouldn't be meddling in
any country's internal affairs.
Cartels versus ISIL
"A recent
United Nations report estimated nearly 9,000 civilians have been killed and 17,386 wounded in Iraq in 2014, more than half since ISIL fighters seized large parts on northern Iraq in June. It is likely that the group is responsible another several thousand deaths in Syria. To be sure, these numbers are staggering. But in 2013 drug cartels murdered more than
16,000 people in Mexico alone, and
another 60,000 from 2006 to 2012 — a rate of more than one killing every half hour for the last seven years. What is worse, these are estimates from the Mexican government, which is known to deflate the actual death toll by
about 50 percent.
Statistics alone do not convey the depravity and threat of the cartels. They carry out
hundreds of beheadings every year. In addition to decapitations, the cartels are known to dismember and otherwise mutilate the corpses of their victims — displaying piles of bodies prominently in towns to
terrorize the public into compliance. They routinely target
women and children to further intimidate communities. Like ISIL, the cartels use social media to post
graphic images of their atrocious crimes...
...U.S. media have especially hyped ISIL’s violence against Americans. This summer ISIL beheaded two Americans and has warned about
executing a third; additionally,
one U.S. Marine has died in efforts to combat the group. By contrast, the cartels killed
293 Americans in Mexico from 2007 to 2010 and have repeatedly
attacked U.S. consulates in Mexico. While ISIL’s beheadings are no doubt outrageous, the cartels tortured, dismembered and then cooked one of the Americans they captured — possibly eating him or feeding him to dogs...
...The cartels’ atrocities are not restricted to the Mexican side of the border. From 2006 to 2010 as many as 5,700 Americans were killed in the U.S. by cartel-fueled drug violence. By contrast, 2,937 people were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Over the last decade, some 2,349 Americans were killed in Afghanistan, and 4,487 Americans died in Iraq. In four years the cartels have managed to cause the deaths of more Americans than during 9/11 or either of those wars..."
