A Mind Game

Sound familiar?

Mexico's raging drug war claimed the lives of six more police officers, ambushed on patrol in the marijuana-rich state of Sinaloa, authorities said Friday.

The attack followed the slaying Thursday of a senior police commander, part of a long string of killings apparently aimed at eroding public confidence in the government's ability to challenge drug gangs.

The six officers were killed when two carloads of heavily armed men cut off their vehicle in the Sinaloa capital of Culiacan, an official with the state attorney general's office said by e-mail.

More than 4,400 people have been killed in drug violence in Mexico, among them hundreds of police officers, since President Felipe Calderon launched an all-out offensive against drug cartels after taking office in December 2006.

Calderon says the surge in killings and gun battles is a sign of his government's success in cracking down on drug-trafficking networks.

Just as in Iraq, we (and our allies within foreign governments) continue to employ a faith-based approach to the impossible missions they are tasked with. Whenever there are two possible outcomes - more violence or less violence - either outcome indicates that we are succeeding.