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Okay, so "War on Drugs" 2.0 then.

Because that's worked out so well the last time...



The war on drugs was prosecuted through law enforcement means inside the U.S., focused on controlling drugs. This would be executed through military means with the goal of eliminating organizations. Ideally like a combination of the war on ISIS m and the war on the italian mafia.


First, the war on drugs did have spec ops operations against cartels: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Snowcap

Second, there's no reason to trust that using the military will work out better: https://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/14/fort_bragg_cartel_set...

Wars on drugs are basically fighting laws of economics themselves. The only option that actually works is legislation & regulation. Why we think that we can't regulate cocaine the way we regulate alcohol, weed, or cigarettes is beyond me.


So what do we do about cartels smuggling illegal labor into Arizona to work on construction projects?


Mandate E-verify with high penalties for employers & a fast remedy track for false negatives.


Make seasonal work permits easy to get and make it easy for people to leave, instead of the current IIRIRA mandatory 10 year bar which incentives people to stay in the black economy.

Or if you're Trump, just fire missiles at things. For all you know some of the people killed on that boat were victims of trafficking themselves.


What’s a solution that doesn’t involve adding sub-market price foreign labor?


Ask someone else. I believe that labor should have the same free movement privileges as capital, so that the provider of said labor can maximize their economic opportunity.


Well kudos for being honest that you don't believe in nations or borders.


No kudos for falsely putting words in my mouth. Every time I think something's beneath you you manage to surprise me.

It's a simple concept: to the extent that capital is allowed to move freely across borders, so should labor. That doesn't argue for the abolition of nations of borders, but the removal of unecessary friction on natural market flows.


We should subsidize that.


> The war on drugs was prosecuted through law enforcement means inside the U.S., focused on controlling drugs.

That isn't the whole story, not by a long shot.

Plenty of Latin American countries collaborated on this with the United States and there were DEA personnel in many of those countries, some stationed permanently, others on shorter tours mainly involved in educating local LE. In Colombia for instance your chances of being interviewed by US DEA officer when leaving the country were pretty good. Even today they have plenty of representation outside of the USA:

https://www.dea.gov/foreign-offices/north-and-central-americ...


ISIS was in a declared war with 60 countries. Some dudes in a boat are not the same thing.




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