Last night MEXDRUGCARTELS posted a summary of two articles regarding a report produced by two retired Army Generals, Barry McCaffrey and Dr Robert Scales, concerning the growing threat along the Texas/Mexico Border. That piece was titled, “Cartel Violence Heading North and Federal Government in “Deep Denial” According to Retired Army General”.
Here is the link to the actual report found on the Texas Department of Agriculture website that resulted in media attention, “Texas Border Security A Strategic Military Assessment September 2011.” You can also download a copy of the report here.
Here are a couple excerpts from the report: 
TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
TODD STAPLES
COMMISSIONER
September 26, 2011
Dear Fellow Texan:
I am pleased to deliver to you this important report entitled “Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment.” This report is the culmination of many efforts that started with rural farmers and ranchers bringing pleas for a secure border to me. The 82nd Texas Legislature recognized this critical issue and the numerous accounts of cross-border violence and tasked the Texas Department of Agriculture via House Bill 4, to conduct:
“an assessment of the impact of illegal activity along the Texas-Mexico border on rural landowners and the agriculture industry and working in conjunction with other appropriate entities to develop recommendations to enhance border security.”
In accomplishing this legislative directive, the Texas Department of Agriculture joined with the Texas Department of Public Safety to jointly commission retired four-star Army General Barry McCaffrey and retired Army Major-General Robert Scales for this unique and strategic assessment.
General Barry McCaffrey is the former Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Bill Clinton and former Commander of all U.S. troops in Central and South America. Major-General Robert Scales is the former Commandant of the United States Army War College.
The report offers a military perspective on how to best incorporate strategic, operational and tactical measures to secure the increasingly hostile border regions along the Rio Grande River. It also provides sobering evidence of cartel criminals gaining ground on Texas soil. As Texas continues to seek and deliver solutions to this attack on our nation’s sovereignty, I hope you will find this report enlightening and helpful in our collaborative efforts. We must continue this effort until the rights of property owners to live and work are upheld without threat of violence.
Sincerely yours,
Todd Staples
Another excerpt here (format slightly modified to fit on this page)…McCaffrey is a fine writer, his work is often very well done…easy to understand…excellent clarity on issues addressed.
The study by McCaffrey and Scales is 182 pages and begins with an executive summary. Here’s a small excerpt of that summary from a military perspective. OF SPECIAL NOTE, understand that McCaffrey is not a newbie to the overall drug issue, McCaffrey served as the 4th Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy:
TEXAS BORDER SECURITY: A STRATEGIC MILITARY ASSESSMENT
Executive Summary
During the past two years the state of Texas has become increasingly threatened by the spread of Mexican cartel organized crime. The threat reflects a change in the strategic intent of the cartels to move their operations into the United States. In effect, the cartels seek to create a “sanitary zone” inside the Texas border -- one county deep -- that will provide sanctuary from Mexican law enforcement and, at the same time, enable the cartels to transform Texas’ border counties into narcotics transshipment points for continued transport and distribution into the continental United States. To achieve their objectives the cartels are relying increasingly on organized gangs to provide expendable and unaccountable manpower to do their dirty work. These gangs are recruited on the streets of Texas cities and inside Texas prisons by top-tier gangs who work in conjunction with the cartels.
Strategic, Operational and Tactical Levels of Conflict
The authors of this report, both retired senior military executives bring more than 80 years
of military and governmental service to their perspective on Texas border security viewed in terms of the classic levels of conflict: strategic, operational and tactical.
Strategic
America’s fight against narco-terrorism, when viewed at the strategic level, takes on the classic trappings of a real war. Crime, gangs and terrorism have converged in such a way that they form a collective threat to the national security of the United States. America is being assaulted not just from across our southern border but from across the hemisphere and beyond. All of Central and South America have become an interconnected source of violence and terrorism. Drug cartels exploit porous borders using all the traditional elements of military force, including command and control, logistics, intelligence, information operations and the application of increasingly deadly firepower. The intention is to increasingly bring governments at all levels throughout the Americas under the influence of international cartels.
Operational
In the United States the operational level of the campaign against cartel terrorism is manifested at the state. Texas has become critical terrain and operational ground zero in the cartel’s effort to expand into the United States. Texas has an expansive border with drug cartels controlling multiple shipping lanes into the state. Texas’ location as the geographic center of the U.S. allows for easier distribution of drugs and people. In effect, the fight for control of the border counties along the Rio Grande has become the operational center of gravity for the cartels and federal, state and local forces that oppose them.
Tactical
At the tactical level of war the cartels seek to gain advantage by exploiting the creases between U.S. federal and state border agencies, and the separation that exists between Mexican and American crime-fighting agencies. Border law enforcement and political officials are the tactical focal point. Sadly, the tactical level is poorly resourced and the most vulnerable to corruption by cartels. To win the tactical fight the counties must have augmentation, oversight and close support from operational and strategic forces. History has shown that a common border offers an enemy sanctuary zone and the opportunity to expand his battlespace in depth and complexity. Our border with Mexico is no exception. Criminality spawned in Mexico is spilling over into the United States. Texas is the tactical close combat zone and frontline in this conflict. Texans have been assaulted by cross-border gangs and narco-terrorist activities. In response, Texas has been the most aggressive and creative in confronting the threat of what has come to be a narco-terrorist military-style campaign being waged against them.
If you want another perspective of the drug war you are not hearing about from the Federal government or mainstream media Skim through, if not read the entire report.
“Complacency Kills”…is a quote and concept I first learned as a young Marine during studies on Terrorism and as an Anti-Terrorism Force Protection Instructor. You have to have the mind and agility of a hunter, or you may end up as someone else’s meal.
Note: Sources are hyperlinked.
Cheers, 
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