US general: Mexico part of 'North American family'

Associated Press ^ | Sept. 23, 2011 | DAN ELLIOTT

[Free ThinkerNY]

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AP) -- The U.S. shares responsibility with Mexico for confronting the danger posed by international crime rings that ship drugs across the border, a top American general said Friday.

Army Gen. Charles H. Jacoby Jr., head of the U.S. Northern Command, said Mexico isn't just a neighbor but "part of our North American family."

[driftless2]

Depends on which historian you read. I’ve read estimates of about five to seven million on the North American continent which seems more likely. Most Indians didn’t live in huge cities where most population growth takes place. I’d say the five million estimate is closest to the truth.

[SkyDancer]

Good info, thanks.

[The Theophilus]

I didn’t know American was considered a language; I’ve never seen that anywhere else but your post.

Its in the same family of languages as "Austrian" - another language Obama doesn't know.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I worked my way through “1493” and am now reading the first of this series titled “1491.” Both by Charles Mann.
According to Mann's research, some of the old Spanish records indicate more than five million Mexica in the Mexico City basin alone...

[Graybeard58]

Not a single comment on the aspects of this being part of a North American Union ploy?

The seeds are being watered with this "We Are Family" BS, IMO.

The original planting was NAFTA. Ross Perot was right and he was the only candidate who was. No, I didn't vote for him but he was still right about NAFTA.

[kearnyirish2]

Interesting; I never knew much about Costa Rica.

[kearnyirish2]

You could apply American demographics to all of those stats; a number of Americans don’t speak English, instead speaking their native tongues.

Interesting stats, though; are 99% of the Mestizos “small”? It certainly seems that way.

[Owl558]

“Why do “Mexicans” speak Spanish instead of Mexican?”

The Spanish were VERY good at what they did. Plenty of words remain and there are plenty of dialects, but you make a great point. Languages live or they become latin.

Laying the Latin alphabet over Nahuatl set it’s course.

[Vernon]

Years ago we were at a meeting in Argentina and standing in quite a crowd. Some character tried to “pick” my billfold pocket. I felt it and knocked his hand away.

I had been in Spain for 18 months in the Air Force and do not speak fluent Spanish though I could survive if needed. Without thinking, in the only Spanish I knew, I said, “Hey man, you want to go to the cemetery today!” He apparently understood me and said “No.” I told him to “get out of here,” and he left!

[driftless2]

If you look at the Aztec and Mayan civilizations, you’ll see larger numbers. But north of Mexico, the numbers were probably never more than five million. The historians looked at the absence of cities and the nomadic life of most Indians and calculated that it would have been very difficult to build up large numbers of people. We must be wary of work done by leftist academicians who look to inflate numbers for political purposes.

[Travis McGee]

Sounds like a couple of novels I wrote.

I have to keep writing further ahead, to avoid being overtaken by current events.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

That's Mann's conclusion. Very large cities and populations in southern Mexico, Central America and South America. Very little of this on the plains.

The first Indians that the English and Dutch encountered on the east coast (1600s) had sizable populations and stayed in an established range for the most part but did not have the structure found around Mexico City and south.

All these populations were cut down mercilessly by having never been exposed to European disease. Africans had been exposed, thus made better slaves for the Spanish and other Europeans.

Mann mentions “over-counters” and “under-counters” who have political issues they want to put forward. I'd recommend both his books.

[central_va]

Doesn’t every family have a criminal drug addict in it? /sarc

[wardaddy]

must be a Perry supporter like many here

haven’t seen so many amnesty types on the forum since 2005

[Travis McGee]

They come out of the woodwork for the likes of Perry/Bush et al.

Most of them are country club RINOs who love how Pedro mixes the drings on the 19th hole. Always a smile and a joke, that Pedro, and his white waiters jacket is just perfect. And Pedro’s son’s lawn service es lo mas barrato in town, and his daughter is just the perfect criada for their ninos.