On Newsmax on Monday, Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., defended a bill he had proposed with Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, earlier this year to authorize the use of military force to stop the drug cartels at the southern border from smuggling deadly fentanyl into the United States.
"We're building support for [the bill], and we are asking that the Democrats, in particular, to look at this for the humanitarian crisis that it is, to look at this for the narco-terrorism that it is," said Waltz, while appearing on "The Record with Greta Van Susteren."
"If ISIS or al-Qaida poisoned 80,000 Americans with chemical weapons, if they controlled whole swaths of our border, if they were completely destabilizing a neighbor, and then facilitating mass migration flows, we would never stand for it," Waltz continued.
"We would take ISIS and al-Qaida out. We would dismantle them. We would destroy them. We would disrupt them. To begin going on offense. They've declared war on us," added Waltz.
The bill, introduced Jan. 12, asked Congress for an Authorization for Use of Military Force such as drones, offensive cyber-attacks, as well as using special forces to combat the cartels bringing the drugs across the border and leading to more than 100,000 deaths in the United States in the last year.
"The situation at our southern border has become untenable for our law enforcement personnel largely due to the activities spurred by the heavily armed and well financed Sinola and Jalisco cartels," Waltz said in a January release asking for the AUMF.
"It's time to go on offense," the Florida Republican continued. "Not only are these paramilitary transnational criminal organizations responsible for killing an unprecedented number of Americans but are actively undermining our sovereignty by destabilizing our border and waging war against U.S. law enforcement and the Mexican military.
"An AUMF would give the President sophisticated military cyber, intelligence, and surveillance resources to disrupt cartel operations that are endangering Americans. The U.S. was successful in assisting the Columbian government dismantle cartels in the 1990s and must do the same now," added Waltz.
When Van Susteren asked Waltz if the use of those military assets would mean a de facto "invasion" of Mexico, Waltz said it could be done without any troops on the ground, and that the U.S. military has used the same tactics to take out other cartels in the past.
"I think it takes a different way of thinking about this. I don't know that I'd say we invaded Syria, but we certainly are not going to let ISIS hit us from unfettered bases there," said Waltz.
"So, doing nothing, which is what [the] Biden [administration] is doing, also isn't a strategy, and we have to protect our sovereignty, defend our people, defend our borders, and send a message diplomatically to the Mexican government. We want to work with you. We want to help your military," added Waltz.
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