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Bad optics, but in absolute terms it ended well. The Mexicans acted relatively respectfully, returning the sidearm to the vehicle, and everyone went home that night. Because it made the news, it’s not going to happen like that again, probably patrols won’t be individual vehicles or have some sort of QRC nearby to back up contact incidents. All the armchair rambos out there need to take a deep breath and maybe a cold shower. Not everything is a schlong measuring contest.

Mexico is overwhelmed, infiltrated by the cartels, and barely functional as a government. Yeah they need to do a lot better, but you don’t get them serious by shooting up their troops at the least little provocation like you’re in a damned video game. Needlessly escalating a border patrol misunderstanding into a full scale force on force hot war serves no public interest... not ours, not Mexico’s.

I wouldn’t give the guys a medal, but I wouldn’t court Marshall them either.

As much as this small incident raises my hackles, I agree entirely with deescalating the situation as described. Death and destruction are easy to start but hard to stop. I'd also agree with another fellow here that the border needs to be marked more clearly to help avoid further "misunderstandings" or ... LMAO ... potential "schlong measuring contests."

Frankly, I keep wondering just how much longer Mexico's profoundly corrupt, "barely functional" national government can stagger on before finally collapsing into institutional chaos. The cartels just keep springing back and growing ever more violent and terrifying no matter how much apparent effort is put into smacking them down. Given how dysfunctional governments in deeply troubled countries such as North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela have nonetheless bitterly clung to power for decades, I suppose it's not unreasonable to envision Mexico's own apparatchiks wobbling on for decades until the United States finally bites the bullet and either decriminalizes hard drugs or launches a full-scale "anti-terrorism" military crusade against the drug cartels inside Mexico itself.

Bad optics, but in absolute terms it ended well. The Mexicans acted relatively respectfully, returning the sidearm to the vehicle, and everyone went home that night. Because it made the news, it’s not going to happen like that again, probably patrols won’t be individual vehicles or have some sort of QRC nearby to back up contact incidents. All the armchair rambos out there need to take a deep breath and maybe a cold shower. Not everything is a schlong measuring contest.

Mexico is overwhelmed, infiltrated by the cartels, and barely functional as a government. Yeah they need to do a lot better, but you don’t get them serious by shooting up their troops at the least little provocation like you’re in a damned video game. Needlessly escalating a border patrol misunderstanding into a full scale force on force hot war serves no public interest... not ours, not Mexico’s.