Theres a sharp crack from a sniper rifle fired from the Black Hawk.
Oil splatters across the windshield and smoke pours from the engine block, forcing the caravan to stop.
Commandos leap from the hovering Little Bird and race to surround the cartel leaders truck.
A U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret is pictured at Special Operations Forces (SOF) Week on May 8, 2024, in Tampa, Florida.Luke Sharrett/Getty Images
This mission cycle would continue until the list of cartel leaders was exhausted.
Then the commandos would move on to middle managers and finally foot soldiers.
Youre going to find and fix the HVT first, and then start gutting the networks.
To a man, all said theyd volunteer for the mission.
All you do is create a succession crisis, she says.
Its basically settled with violence.
You have to go back and think of a new strategy, Gallaher tells me.
I think thats the only way that it’s possible for you to start to defeat the cartels.
Who doesnt want to throw a satchel charge into an underground drug lab?
he says, laughing.
Thats super-sexy stuff that we sign up to do.
Let me make this abundantly clear, he says.
Cartel members are not even near peers to the Mexican military.
The vast majority of times, cartel members just get whacked.
They get rolled over.
Cartel sicarios have no tactics.
Most use American guns smuggled across the border, he says.
The real fear is that the violence wouldnt stay confined to south of the border.
Right now, cartels fear American retribution.
But if the United States declares war on them, that changes.
Will the cartels see the 1.6 million Americans in Mexico as targets for terror campaigns?
asks All Source News.
The cartels will make money wherever they can, All Source News tells me.
For example, in Michoacan, the cartels are fighting overlike avocados and limes.
They traffic avocados, limes, even avocado oil.
Theyre also into water, timber, extortion anything they can use to generate income.
the former Marine officer says.
Were not fighting an army.
That starts with determining an end state something the United States didnt do during its last foreign adventures.
