Gingrich: Mexico's instability a "nightmare" for US

Frequent use of illegal drugs aside, no one every mistook Mexico for Berkeley. There's drugs that form drum circles, and then there's drugs that threaten to completely disrupt Elton John's precious Circle of Life, turning it into a Circle of Mayhem and Nihilistic Death.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Mexico has become a Disney dystopia.

A report released earlier this week by the Joint Operations Environment (JOE: go here for report) warned that Mexico is in danger of becoming a failed state. The country’s government and infrastructure has nearly succumbed to its vicious and bloody drug war.

It is common place in Mexico for police officers to bribed, tortured and murdered and even more alarming, especially near the United States southern border. In the past year alone more people have died from drug related criminal activity in Mexico than American casualties suffered in Iraq. The losses in Mexico add up to 5,300 people in the past year.

And at least Michael Chertoff fears all that talk about surges in Iraq and Afghanistan might have to happen right here in the United States, to ward off the violence encroaching on our exposed borders:

It is only a matter of time before these wars spread here to settle old scores, expand operations in a more market friendly environment, or leave Mexico altogether. He proposed the idea that the federal government will have to entertain a possible “surge” of military and police personnel to the border as a serious possibility.

So far, Newt Gingrich is the only '12 candidate who's taking a real-time look at the situation, and a real-time look means reading the very-for-real JOE report (pdf) and finding out that the state of Mexico is as close to failing as Pakistan.

Newt:

“We have to rethink our entire strategy for working with Mexico. The war that’s under way in Mexico is an enormous national security threat to the U.S. If we allow the drug dealers to win we will have a nightmare on our southern border and no amount of fence and no amount of national security would compensate for the collapse of Mexico."