There’s a war going on in the United States. A devastating and debilitating war. A war in which the U.S. government refuses to protect its citizens.
The United States spent almost $1 trillion dollars (in 2022 terms) in the Vietnam War. There were protests across America opposing the war. The press pushed back hard against the policies of Presidents Johnson and Nixon. Public outcry ultimately helped change the direction of government policy. Over 58,000 U.S. servicemen were killed in vain in Vietnam. Today we are experiencing a much more devastating war inside U.S. borders.
In 2021 alone, over 71,000 Americans died from fentanyl overdoses, up almost 25% over 2020. And 2022 will likely witness another surge. Let those numbers sink in. More deaths in one year from fentanyl overdoses than losses throughout the entire Vietnam War. Yet there is no public outcry. There is no effective U.S. government policy. The press remains largely uninterested and completely silent.
The U.S. Government Refuses: A Border Unprotected
Indisputably Mexican drug cartels are a large part of the problem. The southern U.S. “border” is effectively undefended. Now this is not a debate about immigration policy (if the U.S. even has one). This is all about the relentless murdering of American citizens by foreigners – and the failure of the U.S. government to protect them. When a government abrogates its primary responsibility of defending and protecting its citizens – and the current government has – then the public must demand change. But where is the public outcry? Where is the press investigation of this massive government failure? Why is democracy so completely failing to respond in a war larger than the Vietnam War? A political scientist might claim that something has gone horribly wrong in the transmission of democracy. And he would be right.
The destruction of so many American lives and the misery borne by family members is reprehensible. It should be uniformly unacceptable. In days of yore, the press would scour for truth and demand answers. The U.S. government would have a lot of “splaining” to do. There would be consequences for inaction. Someone would be held responsible. Heads might even roll. But today – only crickets.
It’s More Than the Cartels: And Then There’s the People’s Republic of China
The fentanyl crisis involves more than Mexican drug cartels simply smuggling across the U.S. southern border with impunity. China plays a critical – if not the critical – role in this attack directed against American citizens.
As references, in 2020 the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency noted that China (PRC) is “the main source for all fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States.” In 2019 China imposed controls over all forms of fentanyl as a class of drugs. Even though trafficking patterns changed thereafter, fentanyl production in Mexico continues to utilize, and remains dependent on, Chinese-sourced primary materials. Importantly, this includes the precursor chemicals that are legal to produce in, and export from, China. As the Congressional Research Service (CRS) noted in July 2022, “according to DEA assessments . . . Chinese traffickers and money launderers appear to have increased cooperation with Mexican cartels.”
U.S. law enforcement pursues its quixotic dream of getting the PRC to stop the flow of fentanyl. But, as is always the case with China, the PRC demands linkage to matters of its own concern (the CRS cites trade, as an example), without which complete interdiction is almost certainly impossible. We know that If China wanted to shut production down, it could do so almost immediately. Why would U.S. policymakers tilt at the PRC windmill? Twain: “Let us be thankful for the fools; but for them the rest of us could not succeed.”
The U.S. Government Refuses to Defend: Politics Over People
How far will this U.S. government go to defend its citizens against these attacks on Americans? Not far enough to save the lives of 71,000 people who perished in 2021. And no doubt the many more beyond. The U.S. government refuses to act in any meaningful way.
There’s a long-standing tradition of Presidents writing letters of condolences to the families of the fallen. They almost universally recognize the sacred sacrifice of life for the betterment of the nation. But the President’s letter to the families of the fallen in the fentanyl war, were he to pen one honestly, could recognize only the dishonor of a nation having failed its people. And the wasted lives and ocean of pain lying in its wake.
It takes political will to win a war. This government devotes far more and greater resources to the Ukrainian war than on protecting the lives of its own citizens who likely aren’t even aware they are under attack. Shame, shame, shame.