David McCormick, the GOP nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania, voiced his support for using the U.S. military to unilaterally strike targets deep inside Mexico as part of the war on drugs, claiming that it would help limit the transport of fentanyl.
“I’m not saying we’re going to send the 82nd Airborne Division to do a jump into Mexico,” McCormick, an army veteran and ex-hedge fund CEO, told the Associated Press. “What I’m saying is the combination of special operations and drones, I think, could eradicate the manufacturing facilities, kill the distribution networks and do a real dent in what is a terrorist activity.”
McCormick's call for military intervention in Mexico follows similar calls from other Republicans, including former President Donald Trump and vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio. McCormick, who said the U.S. should not seek Mexico's approval before launching raids on its territory, did not respond to Salon's request for comment.
Trump already proposed attacking Mexico while he was in office, only to be shut down by administration officials. But now there's a much larger chorus of Republicans keen on taking drastic action, ostensibly intended to curb the flow of illicit drugs. Any military action would have the potential to increase migration and have an unpredictable impact on security in Mexico.
Mexico tried similarly heavy-handed tactics on its own in the 2000s, resulting in 60,000 dead and 230,000 people displaced while the cartels remained in power.
A military operation by the U.S. to curb drug trafficking in Colombia also largely failed, at great human and material cost. But that has not stopped McCormick from citing that effort as a model to follow in Mexico.
The Republican has also explicitly argued against seeking prior approval for what would be an infringement on Mexico's sovereignty.
“The time for negotiating with the Mexican government to get their DEA on this is gone,” McCormick told an audience in September. “We’ve got to get tough on it. And that’s what I would do.”
Former Mexican President Andrés López Obrador, in response to similar calls for a U.S. war in Mexico, said in 2022 that his government would not "permit any foreign government to intervene in our territory, much less that a government's armed forces intervene." A rift with Mexico, the U.S.'s largest trade partner, would likely damage both countries' economies and put an end to cooperation on stemming the flow of migrants into the U.S.
The Senate hopeful has also said that he would like to see U.S. military assets used "selectively and thoughtfully," but that has proven historically difficult to put in practice.
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