Some 37,000 people in Mexico are categorized as “missing” by the government. The vast majority are believed to be dead, victims of the country’s spiraling violence that has claimed more than 250,000 lives since 2006. The country’s murder rate has more than doubled to 26 per 100,000 residents, five times the U.S. figure. Because the missing aren’t counted as part of the country’s official murder tally, it is likely Mexico’s rate itself is higher.

So, at minimum Mexico has five times the US murder rate. (And yet international opinion goes on and on about the number of US murders, but by comparison seems to ignore the suffering in Mexico.)

All my life I have watched Mexico grow worse and worse, until now it is a failed state and a never-ending source of misery for its citizens. With its corrupt police and crime syndicates so tightly wound together, they are highly unlikely to ever be able to stop this never-ending cycle of violence that constantly takes innocent lives. And while I am deeply concerned about US border security, I also recognize that the only hope for normal families there is to escape to North of the border. I cannot blame anyone there trying to get out.

While this is a controversial position, I believe that there is a serious case to be made for the US military to literally invade and administer Mexico and help rebuild it. A dangerous, violent failed state on our borders is a neverending security risk for us, and simple humanity cries out for intervention.

The US seems to have few problems with invading sovereign states in the Middle East on far weaker justification.