More On Clinton

Here's the Washington Post synopsis of her remarks today. As I referred to in my earlier post about Clinton, I think it's great that she is willing (on behalf of her nation) to accept responsibility for the violence in Mexico, and she went pretty far in declaring the drug war the bloated, ridiculous mess that it is. Kudos. That's a good step. However, when she moved from the rhetorical blame-taking to actual changes in policy, her boldness faded a bit:

Clinton signaled that the U.S. government planned to do more. She vowed to press for swift delivery of equipment promised under the Merida Initiative, a three-year, $1.4 billion package of anti-drug assistance to Mexico and Central America. Mexican officials and U.S. lawmakers say there are long lag times for helicopters and other gear that are desperately needed. In addition, Congress has approved only $700 million of the $950 million that the Bush administration requested for the program since it began last year.

Clinton also the administration would "try to get more tools to go after the gun dealers" and those who purchase weapons to pass on to the cartels. She did not elaborate. Several U.S. lawmakers have already balked at the idea of cracking down on guns on the American side of the border, and the idea could face an uphill battle in Congress.

So she didn't say anything about rescueing the $150 million that the Senate cut, nor did she mention legalizing pot (no surprise there), and she was non-commital and vague when discussing cracking down on the arms trade. That falls just a bit short of what is needed.

Shifting directions, at one point the author (Mary Beth Sheridan) wrote, "Mexico is facing perhaps the greatest challenge to its stability in a century." Really? Worse than the Mexican Revolution, which started 98-plus years ago and burned hot-and-cold for more than a decade, eventually killing an estimated one million Mexicans? Worse than the three-year Cristero War in the late 1920s, which I recently read killed 60,000? Worse than 1994, when Mexico's leading presidential candidate was assassinated, the Zapatistas were taking over San Cristobal de las Casas, and a financial crisis worse than today's was drilling Mexico? Let's not go overboard.