'Be realistic': Conservative slams Republicans calling for military action against Mexico

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is among the 2024 GOP presidential candidates who has joined former President Donald Trump in calling for the U.S. to take military action against Mexican drug cartels. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has said the U.S. should treat those cartels the same way it treats ISIS (Islamic State, Iraq and Syria).

But in an op-ed published by Politico on August 31, conservative Rich Lowry (best known for his work at the National Review) calls out this idea as foolish and unrealistic.

"The Republican Party may be increasingly divided on support for Ukraine," Lowry explains, "but it is uniting around the idea of launching military raids into Mexico. Ron DeSantis led the way in last week's debate when he said that he'd send special forces into Mexico to hit the drug cartels on Day One, a pledge that, if taken seriously, would mean he's committed to setting off a historic diplomatic crisis with a neighboring country in the opening hours of his presidency."

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to hold office again?

Lowry adds, "Other candidates, including Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley and Tim Scott, have struck a similar bellicose tone."

The conservative journalist describes Mexican drug cartels as a "hellish problem" that aggravates an "intolerable fentanyl crisis" but stresses that realistically, the United States has "no alternative to working with the Mexican government."

"Overall, we should be realistic," Lowry cautions. "As long as there is a huge maw of black-market demand for drugs in the United States, criminal organizations are going to find a way to feed it…. Hitting targets in Mexico can't and won't be a Day One task of a Republican president, but the deteriorating state of Mexico is going to require clear-eyed and creative thinking."

READ MORE: 'Bomb the Mexicans' is the GOP's new 'build the wall': columnist