America's FATA problem

You know FATA, right? Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas which, along with the Northwest Frontier has SWAT and all the Waziri gardens? Yea, well ... while we were looking that way ...

In the last year, more than 5,000 people have been killed and police and military officials have become common targets ...

No need for a fence though ...

....for violent drug cartels who are fighting with each other and the government for control of lucrative drug and human smuggling routes across Mexico.

More than one-fifth of the deaths have occurred in Ciudad Juarez, the hardscrabble border city just across the Rio Grande from El Paso.

Officials in Mexico reported about 1,600 homicides in Juarez in 2007 and at least 20 people have been killed in the first nine days of this year.
...
In October, Hidalgo County officials issued fully automatic weapons to deputies patrolling the river in the Rio Grande Valley. Sheriff Lupe Trevino also authorized his deputies to return fire across the border if smugglers or other criminals took aim at them.

In El Paso, the country's largest border community and one of the safest metropolitan areas in the nation, Sheriff Richard Wiles said that while he doesn't anticipate the city or county being overwhelmed by border violence he applauded the DHS plan to quickly respond if the worst should happen.

"I think it's appropriate for the federal government to have a contingency plan all the way up to the worst case scenario," Wiles said.

BTW, it exists because of the USA's hunger for drugs, so don't snarl too much at the Mexicans. They are the victims of our vices as much as their criminals.