Pentagon Chief Declares War on Drug Cartels, Likens Them to ISIS

Department of War's Role in Homeland Security

• 🛡️ The Department of War is actively involved in defending the homeland, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with agencies on the Homeland Security Task Force.
• 🇺🇸 Troops deployed to the Southwest border have high morale, proud to defend their communities and country against invasion.
• 🚀 The department has deployed 10,000 troops to the Southwest border, asserting 100% control and stopping the "invasion."

Countering Designated Terrorist Organizations

• 🎯 Operations are shifting to the offense against cartel operations, which are identified as designated foreign terrorist organizations.
• ⚔️ The speaker explicitly states the mission is to defeat and destroy these organizations, not just degrade or arrest them.
• 💬 The message to these groups is clear: "We will find you. We will map your networks. We will hunt you down, and we will kill you."

Parallels to Global War on Terror

• 🌍 The speaker draws a direct parallel between drug cartels and groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS, referring to cartels as the "ISIS, this is the Al-Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere."
• 💡 This comparison frames the fight against cartels as a continuation of the two-decade effort to hunt down terrorist organizations.

Impact and Evidence of Operations

• 🚫 Every strike against cartel operations is credited with saving 25,000 American lives by preventing drugs from reaching the US.
• 🔍 Recent maritime operations in the Caribbean and Pacific have provided clear intelligence on cartel members, their networks, origins, and destinations.
• 📊 The knowledge that "they know we know" is expected to change the calculus of these cartel operations.