Crime scholar writes drug trafficking is a business and violence is a strategy, in Washington Post

"Because trafficking is a business and fighting is a business strategy, drug cartels chose to fight whenever war brings more benefits than costs," writes Viridiana Rios in a Washington Post op-ed, Sunday, April 14, 2013. "Traffickers pick their wars. Battling is a strategic choice for cartels -- and they frequently choose peace." But right now "war pays in Mexico." The strategy is take out the illegal profits, she argues. Can one be devised short of legalization?

The U.S. and Mexico "may have been fighting the wrong war because we do not know who the enemy is," she writes. Target not the organizations but the violence. "A war against drug organizations is an endless war." Right now, fighting in Mexico "makes business sense." In Mexico, "only 6 percent of all homicides produce a trial and judgment."Our effort "must be a war to make sure those who kill face consequences."

She concludes, "A war against impunity can be won. A war against drugs cannot."