Former president Trump does a lot of bragging about his accomplishments while he was in the White House. One of the most prominent is that he finished out his one term without starting any foreign wars. Whether this is to his credit or because his generals prevented any of his capricious ideas from coming to fruition, is now a moot point, but one which begs for scrutiny as he campaigns for a second term and appears to be even more belligerent and unhinged than in 2016.
We recently learned that on January 3, 2021, he, and General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had an all-out confrontation, one of many that they had had in the previous months. “Milley had been engaged in an alarmed effort to insure that Trump did not embark on a military conflict with Iran as part of his quixotic campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 election and remain in power. The chairman secretly feared that Trump would insist on launching a strike on Iranian interests that could set off a full-blown war.”
To insure that Trump did not go berserk and order any such strikes, “Milley repeatedly met in private with the Joint Chiefs. He told them to make sure there were no unlawful orders from Trump and not to carry out any such orders without calling him first”.
This was in 2021, as the nation teetered on the brink of a civil war ignited by a frenzied Trump trying to hold on to power in the face of his election loss to Joe Biden.
Now, as Trump campaigns for 2024, he is nursing other dangerous ideas to make a big gesture that would, in his mind, capture the imagination of his MAGA cult and propel him into the Oval Office again. Will he pursue this Mexican plan if he is elected?
A few months back, he was asking his advisers to draw up battle plans to wage war on drug cartels in Mexico, to bomb them even–with or without the Mexican government’s consent. Inshort, to start a war with Mexico.
According to a Rolling Stone report from early April, the former president asked for “a range of military options aimed at taking on Mexican drug cartels, including strikes that are not sanctioned by Mexico’s government.”
The source at Rolling Stone added, “He’s complained about missed opportunities of his first term, and there are a lot of people around him who want fewer missed opportunities in a second Trump presidency.”
Those options, according to the report, include “unilateral military strikes and troop deployments on a sovereign U.S. partner and neighbor.” Trump has been briefed on a proposal from the Center for Renewing America, called “It’s Time to Wage War on Transnational Drug Cartels.” The report, from last October, was authored by Ken Cuccinelli, who served in multiple roles in the Trump Administration, including Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security.
Cuccinelli, per Rolling Stones, is supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis for president.
“Given the scope of the cartels’ power, influence, and operational control over the US southern border, long-lasting border security cannot be fully achieved until the US fundamentally reorients its posture toward these transnational criminal organizations and wages defensive war against the cartels to protect the American people,” the report says. It also suggests a new statutory designation for such cartels and recommends that Mexico be asked to help- while making clear that they do not have veto power over U.S. actions.
“Under the first tier of a war against the cartels, the US government is formally announcing its intention to invoke its inherent right to self-defense and putting into place the pieces necessary to bring forth the full force of the federal government to secure its borders and defeat those profiting off the abuse of migrants and the destruction of US communities from safe havens inside Mexico,” it continues.
The paper calls for a multiphase battle against the cartels, leading up to Tier Four: “Victory Phase.”
“Success in this mission will restore faith in America’s ability to protect herself and her allies from those who seek power and profit off of death and destruction,” the paper says.
Calling for a military intervention to deal with Mexico’s drug cartels is not a new idea. Other Republicans, including Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), have called for something similar, while Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) has asked why “we still haven’t declared the cartels a military target. Not to be outdone, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has called for declaring cartels terrorist organizations and asked why we’re fighting a war in Ukraine, and we’re not bombing the Mexican cartels.”
Legislation has been introduced in both houses of Congress to authorize military action in Mexico to go after cartels.
Reason magazine argued earlier this month that war isn’t the way to deal with the cartels.
“The increase in overdose deaths among Americans is tragic and obviously a problem. It isn’t one that will be solved by fighting the war on drugs just a little bit harder. It certainly isn’t one that will be solved by bombing a neighboring country against its wishes, risking further escalation.”
