Nearly a year ago, it was interesting to be attacked as Neo-Cons after stating what seemed to be obvious then and, unfortunately, is becoming more obvious by the day regarding the chaos in Mexico. Here was the statement and the resultant question:

Like it or Not: Mexico is America’s Next Afghanistan

With the exception of, perhaps, Texas governor Rick Perry, no public official wants to publicly admit an obvious fact: The United States of America will likely be forced to invade Mexico. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.  The question then becomes: What to do with Mexico after we invade it and wipe out the drug cartels (as much as can be). Does the United States merely return Mexico to a nation state of corrupt politicians, failed economic policies, and lawlessness, or do we annex Mexico and turn it into the 51st state?

A lot has changed since last year:

• The Obama administration is being implicated in killing Mexicans (as well as our own border patrol agents) in an ill-conceived, tax-payer funded gun-running sting operation gone bad. In fact, the Obama administration seems not to have been just conducting surveillance on the bad guys, but actually selling them the guns.
• We’ve seen the Middle East explode in what may (or may not) have been a brilliantly-played hand of 21st Century State Craft. [Although, after the fall of Tunisia and Egypt, when 21st Century State Craft failed in Libya, the Obama administration opted to assist the old-fashioned way, lending America's military might to help Libya's Al Qaeda-linked rebels.]
• We are currently seeing the latest Marxist Movement (NeoComs!) donning Halloween masks while occupying a park in lower Manhattan.

While these are just a few things of this past year,  there two issues that have stayed constant over this past year is: 1) the murders in Mexico continue unabated (if anything, they have gotten worse) and, 2) the Obama administration’s inability unwillingness to deal with the narco-terrorism along the U.S. border.

Now, the events of the day are a reminder that, at some point, the United States will be required (required, Ernie, not desired) to use military force in Mexico.

Consider this:

• Drug-related violence is escalating.
• According to the Department of Justice (via the Daily Caller), drug cartels are now operating in over 1,000 cities:

The primary regions where the TCOs have been operating are Florida/Caribbean, Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, New England, New York/New Jersey, Pacific, Southeast, Southwest and West Central.

• Mexican drug cartels, according to the same DOJ report (via CNS News) control access to the US-Mexico border:

Mexican drug-trafficking organizations “control access to the U.S.-Mexico border” and the “smuggling routes across” it, “resulting in unprecedented levels of violence in Mexico” and allowing those drug trafficking organizations and their associates to “dominate the supply and wholesale distribution of most illicit drugs in the United States,” according to the Justice Department’s newly published 2011 National Drug Threat Assessment.

“Mexican-based trafficking organizations control access to the U.S.–Mexico border, the primary gateway for moving the bulk of illicit drugs into the United States,” says the assessment published by DOJ’s National Drug Intelligence Center.

“The organizations control, simultaneously use, or are competing for control of various smuggling corridors that they use to regulate drug flow across the border,” says the assessment. “The value they attach to controlling border access is demonstrated by the ferocity with which several rival TCOs [transnational criminal organizations] fighting over control of key corridors, or ‘plazas.’”

Over the last year, while much has changed across the world, the violence in Mexico continues to get worse while crickets chirp within the Obama administration—or, worse, actually aid and abet in the murder of Mexican citizens.

Note: Doug Ross poses an interesting question: Were Obama and Holder Trying to Touch Off a Civil War in Mexico? Given the administration’s propensity for regime change, and knowing that the fall of Mexico’s regime would not likely happen through Facebook and Twitter, Doug’s hypothesis is certainly plausible.

Regardless of the intent, negligence, or ignorance of the Obama administration, this is a prediction: Unfortunately, regardless of the 2012 outcome (and whether we want to or not), there will be a decision made (with or without support from the Mexican government) to heavily militarize the U.S.-Mexico border and, very possibly, invade our neighbor to our South.

Unfortunately, a year later, it still seems that, Like it or Not: Mexico is America’s Next Afghanistan.

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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

Cross-posted at LaborUnionReport.com.