Retired Marine general John Kelly, Donald Trump’s selection for Secretary of Homeland Security, is likely to bring a tough-on-drugs mentality to that department. Kevin Baron, the executive editor at Defense One, explains:
If you think Gen. Jim Mattis is a gruff talker, wait ’til you get a load of Kelly. The Southie boy from Boston was basically muzzled by President Obama’s Pentagon in his final months as the leader of U.S. Southern Command. But he rose to the top exactly because of that frank talk and advice, previously serving as the three-star senior military aide alongside Defense Secretary Robert Gates and commanding troops through the crucible of Iraq’s Anbar province. As the commander of all U.S. troops south of Mexico, Kelly called border security an “existential” threat – not for the people crossing but because of the economic instability rife across Central and South America driving trafficking and instability. He begged Congress for more attention to transnational organized crime, trafficking, and the root causes for America’s ills from the south. He was as close with liberal human rights groups as he was with grizzled Marine fighters. And he was motivated at his core by the fallacies of men. At an awards dinner by Human Rights First, Kelly told me that America’s demand for drugs was a bigger concern than the drug runners coming from the south and needed more attention. He’s warned Congress of the same concern, and he spoke out against legalizing marijuana. The military and law enforcement could pick off drug cartels all day, he’d say, but until the demand stops, this country will have a national security problem. That wasn’t just a conclusion of his observations as SOUTHCOM commander. That was because, he told me, all but one of about 25 of his childhood friends had died from alcohol or drugs. All but one.
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