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That said, I think promises by some of the presidential candidatesto remove all troops within the arbitrary time frame of one yearare unrealistic, at least from a political and public opinionperspective. Given that a strong majority of the Mexican populationsupports the military and thinks the police are corrupt orincapable of providing security, there would be a backlash againsta president who removed all troops from the fight a year from now.If EPN wins, watch him back off from that promise once his advisorsrealize the actual political stakes. ...52 percent said they back an expanded U.S. role. More than one-fourth 28 percent called for puttingU.S. troops and drug agents on Mexican soil... Anyone who has heard me speak about US policy towards Mexicorecently has heard a similar point. The pundits who have spentdecades claiming that the US can't work with Mexico on securitybecause of longstanding historic tensions have missed the recentshifts in public opinion [ See this Monitor story on warming Mexican support for US Militaryaid ]. The Mexican population is becoming increasingly willing to havecooperation with the US government and military on fightingorganized crime. These public opinion numbers, of course, are not an argument thatthe US should have large numbers of troops on the ground in Mexico.That would be a disaster. Those numbers would quickly reverse toenormous opposition once the troops were actually there. Nobodyshould interpret them that way. My point is that the US and Mexico should embrace the numbers andpromote the cooperation that has been going on for the past fewyears. Hiding from the debate every time a criticism comes up isn'tjust bad policy, it's bad politics. More transparency aboutcooperation in an environment where citizens want to see morecooperation should be an obvious policy. As I wrote in 2010, "When dealing with our democratic neighbors in thehemisphere, either defend the policy publicly or don't do it." In pictures: Life under military protection in Veracruz, Mexico Policymakers in the US and Mexico need to get over the fear ofmentioning security cooperation as if the ghosts of the 19thcentury will come strike them down. Pundits and grandstandingpoliticians aside, public opinion in Mexico is increasingly on theside of greater cooperation, far less concerned about 19th centurygrievances than 21st century violence. Potential and ongoingsecurity programs should be a public discussion in Mexico that theUS welcomes, even in a presidential election year. James Bosworth is a freelance writer and consultant who runs Bloggings by Boz. Get daily or weekly updates from CSMonitor.com delivered to yourinbox. Sign up today . I am an expert from offroading-vehicles.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Dune Buggy Accessories , China Utility Terrain Vehicles, ATV All Terrain Vehicle,and more.
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