There should be outrage over what is happening in Mexico.



Americans have strong opinions about U.S. involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they seem oblivious to the daily carnage in Mexico.



Almost 35,000 people, many of them innocent and some of them Americans, have died in drug-related violence south of the border in the past four years. Gang members gunned down a 32-year-old U.S. Immigration and Customs Agent Feb. 15 in an apparent case of mistaken identity. The accused told authorities they believed the victim's armored SUV belonged to a rival drug cartel.



Last weekend nine people were killed and 12 others injured in Torreon, in northern Mexico, when gunmen opened fire at two bars there. Two weekends ago in Acapulco, once a desirable Pacific Coast resort destination, nine cab drivers and three passengers were murdered. Some of the cabbies had their heads lopped off with machetes. In January, 22 others were massacred in Acapulco by suspected members of a different cartel.



And in Mexico's most violent city - Ciudad Juarez - just over the U.S. border from El Paso, two American teenaged boys were shot and killed at a dealership in early February when they went car shopping. Last year more than 3,100 people were murdered in Ciudad Juarez, making 2010 the border city's most deadly year.



Mexico is a war zone and the war is creeping closer to its resort cities. Despite great deals on Expedia and Priceline, travelers are staying away from some locations, although Mexico's tourist office reports that overall 5.9 million U.S. visitors flew in last year, up from 2009. But the economy is improving and that number would be higher if vacationers weren't so leery. The beaches are inviting, but it's the spray of an AK-47 assault rifle, not the Gulf of Mexico, that worries them.



Rightfully so, Mexico is the U.S.'s third war now. It is the voracious appetite for illegal drugs of Americans and the easy flow of assault rifles across the border that is sparking the mayhem there. The U.S. Department of Justice's National Drug Intelligence Center reports that Mexican drug dealers represent the single greatest drug trafficking threat to the U.S.



More than 25 million Americans admit to using illicit drugs or controlled prescriptions, at a social cost of about $215 billion annually. They're destroying not only themselves, but Mexico, too.



The U.S. has committed $1.4 billion in aid over a three-year period for Mexico's war on drugs, but these days, it seems as if the drug trafficking organizations are winning.



Mexican President Felipe Calderon was in Washington last week, trying to shore up the U.S.-Mexican alliance. The recent death of the ICE agent, and WikiLeaks' revelations late last year that make it appear some U.S. authorities are losing faith in Calderon's ability to stem the violence, exacerbated the already intolerable Mexico problem.



But make no mistake about it, it is a problem with severe consequences on both sides of the border.



More than 90 percent of the cocaine in this country arrives from Mexico. It is an issue of supply and demand and Americans are the demand side of the equation.



More than 50,000 Mexican troops are engaged in the war on drugs - more than the number of U.S. troops in Iraq - but clearly they are challenged. From here, it looks as if the drug lords are winning. It's beyond me why more Americans aren't outraged.



Ann Baldelli is associate editorial page editor.

