While we dither in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mexico crumbles

The political party that ruled Mexico for seven decades before voters threw it out a decade ago gained some momentum in state elections Sunday where the dominant issue was the country's skyrocketing drug violence.

. . . Four of the states that voted are on the border with the United States and have been the scene of pitched battles between drug cartels and Mexican government authorities that have claimed thousands of lives.

. . . The results gauged frustration that many Mexicans feel over the unchecked violence and whether that will influence the presidential vote in 2012, which could allow the PRI to regain power following its rout in 2000 after 71 years of its rule.

Some Mexicans fume over President Felipe Calderon's strategy of all-out war with drug gangs, saying it has failed to bring security. More than 23,000 people have died since Calderon, the leader of the National Action Party (PAN), came to office in late 2006.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/04/1715841/mexicos-pri-gains-momentum-for.html

While we fight to bring 21st century secular democracy to medieval fundamentalist societies, narco-terrorists are seizing control of those states directly south of the Mexican border. And, the Mexican population is losing the will to fight them.