Declaring War on the Cartels?

These recent calls for the use of Special Operations Forces against the Mexican drug cartels ignore that the latter has developed capabilities perilously close to the former. Video evidence and Mexican officials have long revealed that the various cartels, particularly Los Zetas, the Sinaloa Cartel, and Jalisco Cartel New Generation (CJNG), possess the force-multiplying equipment of a formidable asymmetric military force. Examples include the possession of armored vehicles, the use of armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), man-portable heavy weapons systems, as well as the possession of surface-to-air missiles and numerous crew-served weapons.

Beyond equipment, the cartels, chiefly CJNG, have benefited from extensive tactical training, knowledge passed to them from Mexican military defectors, ironically enough, who were trained by US Special Operations forces.