The War on Terror and Drugs: Unending and Unwinnable
Both have mounting death tolls and have cost the US (and some of its allies) trillions of dollars, while remaining exercises in futility, but they have a lot more in common.
1. Uncontained, escalating threat: In the US, Mexican drug cartel violence is no longer just seen in towns at the Texan border and has since spread all the way to quiet, rural areas in states like Oregon and Minnesota. Reports say that they've now infiltrated over 1,000 cities all across the US, emboldening them to even start muscling into Asian markets.
2. Members: Mostly poor, disenfranchised youth who have no better opportunities.
3. Effective tactics for recruiting 'talent': Cartels brazenly hang banners from bridges and signs over the busiest roads offering recruits a good salary, medical care, loans and life insurance.
4. They hire them young: Like this 14-year-old who was a narco hitman.
5. Persuasive marketing: Cartels produce movies glorifying their trade. Then there's narcocorrido, Mexico's answer to gangster rap.
6. Grisly propaganda: Beheading captives on video.
7. Not a friend to media: Chilling and unsettling to see that there is an entire Wikipedia page on journalists killed in Mexico - and it looks as if the list of victims is updated on a monthly basis.
8. Players may change, but the threat will never be neutralised: Power will shift, cartels will be infiltrated and dismantled, kingpins will be toppled and jailed - but as Pablo Escobar can attest from the grave, no one is indispensable in this trade and there'll always be more players waiting to fill the vacuum.
9. There'll always be a market for what they peddle: About 20 million Americans like getting high. When there's demand, there'll be supply.
10. No shortage of foot solders who live and die for them: Understandable in a largely impoverished country where the minimum wage is US$5 a day.
11. Elusive leaders who are as slippery as fuck: "El Chapo" Guzman remains a fugitive after escaping from prison for the second time in July.
12. It's a morally complex war: See the recent movies, Black Mass and Sicario. Also, zero tolerance to drugs in America means a disproportionate number of black people are going to jail and staying there, impacting their families and communities.
13. But there is hope: If countries like Mexico steered more spending towards education instead and reduced gaping income disparities, there would be less and less incentive for youths to get into the drug trade. Sure, that's a fairly optimistic view considering the lucrative profits to be made but this is an occupation where the life expectancy is like 26 and job hazards include finding your wife's head in a box. Secondly, drug legalisation. If and when marijuana is made legal, that's bad business for the cartels and will effectively wipe out one of their big revenue streams.
1. Uncontained, escalating threat: We all know about recent events. ISIS (ISIL, IS, Daesh, League of Asshole Pieces of Shit, whatever you want to call them) has gone from what was perceived as a thorn in the side of the Middle East to a sucker punch in the global gut.
2. Members: Mostly poor, disenfranchised youth who have no better opportunities.
3. Effective tactics for recruiting 'talent': By investing in an unexpectedly personal touch (they groom the young and impressionable the same way pedophiles do) and a well-oiled social media machine, enabling them to lure an unprecedented number of recruits outside the Middle East.
4. They hire them young: It's not just angry, young men in their ranks - they've also radicalised a number of fresh-faced teenage girls from middle-class backgrounds.
5. Persuasive marketing: Slick videos glamourising life in the Islamic State and a social media strategy lifted off the playbook of consumer brands targeted at youth - like the inexplicable #catsofjihad meme.
6. Grisly propaganda: Beheading captives on video.
7. Not a friend to media: American journalist James Foley was the first reporter to be beheaded by ISIS on camera and many more continue to be abducted and killed.
8. Players may change but the threat will never be neutralised: From the ashes of al Qaeda rose ISIS. Intelligence officials may have known about them for some time already but for the rest of us, they were a relatively obscure threat. But like cults, terror groups can quickly gain support and momentum while remaining somewhat under the radar.
9. There'll always be a market for what they peddle: The idealogy and sense of purpose and identity they sell in a region with staggering youth unemployment and formerly oppressive regimes can appeal to many.
10. No shortage of foot soldiers who live and die for them: Jihadists believe they will be rewarded in the afterlife.
11. Elusive leaders who are as slippery as fuck: Though he is believed to have been killed in a US airstrike earlier this year, the leader of ISIS is allegedly still alive, which is hard to verify when he hasn't been seen in public since declaring his authority last year.
12. It's a morally complex war: It's clear that ISIS are the bad guys and they need to be eradicated. But this monster was created by the West in the first place, largely due to their historical meddling in the region for self-serving interests.
13. But there is hope: By now, it's clear I think education and eradication of poverty are the panacea, NOT freedom and capitalism. Disenchantment with oppressive regimes, lack of economic opportunities and soaring youth unemployment rates have made the Middle East a fertile ground for recruitment for terror groups like ISIS. Secondly, let's not forget that the region was only carved out of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. It will take time for them to become functional nations, time for them to resolve their issues and emerge from their Dark Age as Europe once did (here's hoping it won't take a few centuries). And while there will always be religious zealots carrying out unspeakable acts in the name of god, highly functional environments would naturally undermine their cause.