Is Mexico On The Verge Of Collapse?

The Dept. of Defense seems to think so and I can see why as there is basically a civil war going on between the government and the drug cartles. I don't know if I would quite put on the level with Pakistan as a failing state just yet but there is ample reason for concern about our security should it fail. You think illegal immigration is bad now just wait till they become refugees. This is from the El Paso Times via Hot Air.

Mexico is one of two countries that "bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse," according to a report by the U.S. Joint Forces Command on worldwide security threats.

The command's "Joint Operating Environment (JOE 2008)" report, which contains projections of global threats and potential next wars, puts Pakistan on the same level as Mexico. "In terms of worse-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico.

"The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone."

Indeed the Mexican government recently had to send 2,000 troops to Juarez just across the border from El Paso to try and quell the escalating violence there. The problem is the cartels are paying of the police and military to look the other way and corruption is rampant in the political class as well.

We need to get that fence built pronto and use our National Guard to patrol the border. Those patrols could also be used to train other elements of our armed forces as well. I am tired of seeing reports about the Mexican military or cartel men using captured uniforms and equipment crossing our border to protect drug cartel shipments. Plus don't think for a minute that the jihadi's wouldn't use that instability to their advantage as well.

Mexico is a beautiful country with bountiful resources and a hard working industrious population that could/should be prospering not spiralling into despair and chaos. I guess that is what a few decades of socialist kleptocratic rule can do.