While the Washington shrills are occupied denouncing Arizona as the new hot cradle of the Klan, just on the other side of the border a new version of the Colombian Drug Wars of the late 80s and early 90s is being played and played hard.

Till now the war has been run against drug dealers and their support systems (including dirty cops working for all sides) and the complacent Mexican government. But the ante was raised yesterday when a car bomb exploded in Ciudad Juarez yesterday taking out a cop, an EMT and an unknown civilian dressed as a cop.

Drug wars tend to spill far and wide. Arizona and Texas have been suffering some of the collateral effects of this war, but this car bombing is the loud warning that things are about to get seriously big body-count wise and it will spill with full force on this side of the border.

During the Colombian Drug Wars, we were insulated by thousands of miles of distance. Cali isn’t exactly next door and other than some well publicized shootouts in Miami and NY, the great majority of the carnage was produced in Cali. Even so, it got to the point where a commercial airplane was bombed out of the sky by good old Pablo Escobar Gaviria killing 109 innocent people and a reign of terror commenced with bombs targeting public places and killing anybody related to the drug war, relatives or even friends not connected to the drug war.

Washington is again asleep at the switch. I think this will get really bad before anything gets done and then only to target constitutional rights of regular citizens instead of going after the dealers and the Mexican Government. I think we are in for a nasty time within our borders.

For a great book on the Colombian Drug Wars and its effect on the population, I would advise you to get Killing Pablo:The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw by Mark Bowden, the same author of Blackhawk Down.  A documentary based on the book was also made for cable and you can watch part 1 and part 2. And don’t say we were not warned.