I am horrified at the vicious violence endured by the people of Mexico. I don’t blame them for wanting the war against the drug cartels to stop.

What I don’t understand, or perhaps just haven’t heard, is what alternatives are being put forward. If the government tried to buy off the cartels (or, more likely, the other way around), would the cartels become the de facto government?

It doesn’t seem like pacifism would work. If Ghandi were around, he wouldn’t last a minute. You can’t shame or frustrate the cartels into leaving, the way the Indians did the British.

I just don’t know.