For years I've been of the opinion that the US should invade Mexico and set up the sort of government there that we claim we have set up in both Afghanistan and Iraq, as a solution to that countries desperate problems.
But a different solution to the problem of the illegal immigration of millions of desperately poor Mexicans to the US has come to mind.
While I have only begun to consider the ramifications of this solution, it does possess a certain merit and is well worth further thought.
The citizens of Mexico are being manipulated by a small group of enormously wealthy people who control their government. They are being kept unarmed and in poverty, and are financially raped incessantly, with no way out, except to come here.
Yes, we should send back everyone we catch coming across the border, but from now on we should hand 'em each an AK-47 and a thousand rounds of ammo when we do. That's what? Half a million people a year? Inside of two years there'd be a revolution in Mexico.
And I can tell you for damn sure that instead of helping the poor citizens of Mexico sneak across the border as they do now, the Mexican government would start patrolling the hell out of the border, and arrest those who tried to get across.
Instead of the Mexican government having the incentive of all those people getting jobs in the US and sending billions of bucks home, give the government the disincentive of knowing we're arming those same desperately poor people and sending them back home to solve their own problems.
It's a brutal fix, but it would work, one way or another, and would at least give those people who risk their lives to come here a way to take control of their lives, and take control of their nation away from the small group of mega-millionaires who now virtually own the country and treat the rest of the citizenry of Mexico as indentured servants, or worse.