Newsweek's 'Crush Cartels' Fantasy: More Wars, Less Logic
Pete Hegseth, a proponent of endless 'War on Terror' rhetoric, now pivots to 'crushing cartels.' This isn't a new strategy, just a new target for the same old hammer. Remember when we were told 'shock and awe' would stabilize a region, or that specific 'regimes' were the singular source of all drug flow, only to see things predictably worsen? The US policy of militarizing borders and foreign
nations has a stellar track record of increasing instability, empowering criminal organizations, and creating more enemies than it eliminates. This isn't about crushing cartels; it's about validating a perpetual state of military intervention, a policy that has profited the arms industry for decades. One might wonder if Hegseth plans to audit the billions in US military aid that always seems to
find its way into the hands of those it was meant to 'crush.' How many more 'task forces' do we need before acknowledging that perhaps the root causes of cartel power aren't solved with bombs and boots, but rather with economic stability, reduced demand, and honest foreign policy? It’s almost as if the goal isn't actually to solve the problem, but to keep the 'crushing' going indefinitely.