Congressional support is growing for authorizing U.S. military action against terroristic Mexican drug cartels that are flooding the nation with deadly fentanyl.
Earlier this month, Republican members of Congress introduced a resolution to do just that, and it has picked up momentum in the GOP-led House.
Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) and Mike Waltz (R-FL) proposed the resolution on Jan. 12. If passed, it would authorize the mobilization of military forces “against those responsible for trafficking fentanyl or a fentanyl-related substance into the U.S.”
Crenshaw declared the cartels are waging war on the country by “poisoning more than 80,000 Americans with fentanyl every year.” He also credited the organizations with turning Mexico into a “failed narco-state.”
Waltz accused the cartels of not only destabilizing the U.S. border with Mexico but also “waging war against U.S. law enforcement and the Mexican military.”
The numbers are devastating. Fentanyl is now the number one killer of U.S. adults 18-45. A full 10% of the startling drop in American life expectancy recently noted is due to opioid overdoses.
These resulted in over 80,000 deaths in 2021.
As Rep. David Trone (D-MD) chillingly noted in September, the unprecedented epidemic is “equivalent to one 737 (airliner) every day going down, no survivors.”
Authorization of military force against Mexican cartels fueling fentanyl crisis gaining support | Just The News https://t.co/u9HyXIlUVL
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) January 21, 2023
And there are no signs that the crisis is abating, no corners being turned towards a leveling off and then quelling of the epidemic. Instead, it simply keeps getting worse.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that from 2019 to 2020, opioid-related fatalities in the U.S. increased by 38% with synthetic opioid-involved deaths skyrocketing by 56%.
If deaths were not enough, the Congressional Joint Economic Committee tallied the financial losses caused by the fentanyl scourge. The results? The U.S. economy lost approximately $1.47 trillion in 2020, a $487 billion jump over 2019.
The Authorization for Use of Military Force Cartel Influence Resolution would give the president the authority to target Mexican cartels in the same way the country went after ISIS. With tens of thousands of lives lost every year, there are precious few alternatives remaining to fight the epidemic.
