Drugs violence in Mexico will focus US attention closer to home

President Obama does not have to look as far as Afghanistan to find a drugs war, a failing state and violence that threatens the US’s stability. He can look south to Mexico, to a conflict that is bound to displace far-flung troublespots in US preoccupations.

Killings have spread to the “tourist paradise” of the beaches, and north of the border, too; last year, Phoenix, Arizona, was named the “kidnapping capital” of the US.

In the past three years — which have brought at least 18,000 deaths as President Calderón has sent 50,000 armed forces against the drug gangs..

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/bronwen_maddox/article7063203.ece