Here's What Trump's Mexico Invasion Plan Could Look Like: 'Iraq All Over Again' (Rolling Stone)

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https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-mexico-invasion-plan-1235223266/

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Rolling Stone reported in November that Donald Trump’s incoming administration is considering a “soft invasion” of Mexico, in which American special operations would be sent covertly to assassinate cartel leaders. One Trump adviser said Trump “believes it’s necessary to take some kind of military action against these killers.” Trump’s Cabinet picks, including his choices for secretary of defense, secretary of state, and border czar, have publicly supported the idea. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), Trump’s pick for national security adviser, and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) even co-introduced legislation last year to create an Authorization for Use of Military Force to target Mexican drug cartels. Crenshaw argued the U.S. needs to be on a “war footing” against the cartels.

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Rolling Stone talked to half a dozen former special operations soldiers and intelligence agents to see what this saber-rattling might look like in practice. On paper, they argued it was an easy operation to dismantle the cartel leadership, something that our military — particularly units like SEAL Team Six and Delta Force — has mastered after two decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. To a man, all said they’d volunteer for the mission.

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The real fear is that the violence wouldn’t stay confined to south of the border. A Green Beret-turned-CIA operator says past administrations considered using CIA Ground Branch — hybrid intelligence agents and commandos usually made up of former special operations soldiers — to combat the cartels, but the fear of cartel retribution against the operators and their families in the U.S. made it too risky. But the bigger danger could be to the estimated 1.6 million U.S. citizens living in Mexico, All Source News tells me.

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Most of the former special operations soldiers and officers argued the best course of action would be working with and through Mexican security forces, by embedding American advisers with the Mexican military, much like it did with Plan Colombia, the U.S.-backed initiative to combat drug trafficking and insurgency in Colombia through military aid, economic assistance, and social programs. Started in 2000, it reduced drug production and weakened insurgent groups like the FARC, but it took more than a decade and $10 billion.

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