America's Existential Threat is Not Canada

March 12, 2025•548 words

I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it's probably that. So we need to be very careful...With artificial intelligence we're summoning the demon. ~ Elon Musk

We, the great American nation, decided that we've got 138 military bases around the world and we've now figured out that we can buy these drones from the Israelis, and we've decided that the way to proceed is to use this new technology to go and kill anybody that we don't like or who disagrees with us or who we might perceive as making an existential threat. ~ Roger Waters

America faces an existential threat, but not from its northern border with Canada, but from its southern border with Mexico.

While the Trump administration has been fixated on border control and tariffs, it has too frequently seemed to be mis-directed. Rather than addressing the real threats posed by Mexico, ironic and unrealistic suggestions have been made about annexing Canada, a stable and friendly neighbour.

The real existential threat to the American nation is the destabilization caused by Mexican drug cartels that have become a paramount security concern of the United States.

Mexico's situation is as geopolitically important to the U.S. as Ukraine's is to Russia. The arming of the Mexican government or cartels by the BRICS nations would be a crisis for the U.S., just like NATO's support for Ukraine has fueled tensions with Russia.

As a consequence of the destabilization of the geopolitics of wars in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, the cartels have grown extremely powerful with vast areas under their control along the Mexican border with near impunity.

They are highly armed with advanced weaponry, including RPGs, Javelin missile systems, drone-mounted arms, and automatic machine guns, acquired from gunrunners who function in war-torn areas like Ukraine and the Middle East. This makes the Mexican cartels a force to be reckoned with, powerful and deadly.

Actually, another of the existential dangers to American society is the infiltration of the political system by cartels. The reach of the cartels is not limited to Mexico, many of them have infiltrated United States government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and even the Congress!

Corruption at legal points of entry enable human and narcotics smuggling, as the cartels bribe customs and law enforcement officials with tens of thousands of dollars to look the other way. Such corruption is a systemic risk to U.S. border security and enables the cartels to operate with an alarming degree of efficiency.

The Trump administration was correct to highlight the scale of illegal immigration, at an estimated 50 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., posing a multibillion-dollar taxing challenge to American society.

However, the greater existential threat is the manufacturing and distribution of deadly drugs like fentanyl laced drugs by the cartels. These drugs, produced using imported chemicals, are smuggled into the U.S. and kill over 600,000 Americans and 20,000 Canadians per year!