At war in Iraq and Mexico

This week, we look at commentary on the end of the US combat mission in Iraq, as well as on the drug war in Mexico.

Leaving Iraq

On 31 August, US President Barack Obama appeared on national television to tell the American people that the Iraq combat mission is over. The New York Times says he spoke “with his usual calm clarity and eloquence”. So why does he not address the nation more often?

… We are puzzled about why [President Barack Obama] talks to Americans directly so rarely and with seeming reluctance. This was only his second Oval Office address in more than 19 months of crisis upon crisis. The country particularly needs to hear more from Mr. Obama about what he rightly called the most urgent task — “to restore our economy and put the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs back to work.”

Cocaine’s cowboys

The recent discovery of 72 bodies in a drug massacre in Mexico was horrifying, but the country has made progress in its war against drug crime. Still, much remains to be done, and Mexico cannot do it alone, writes the Financial Times.

… [A] more radical approach [was] recently proposed by former President Vincente Fox: that Mexico should legalise drugs unilaterally. The problem here is that drug trafficking is a multinational business. As such, legalisation needs to be enacted multilaterally and universally; otherwise it risks making things worse. … Still, it is no surprise that more Latin Americans are now advocating the idea.