WTH?
I am open to an explanation of how using the US military to “crush” the cartels could be successful, short of carpet-bombing the entire country.
I parse this as follows: Members of the cartels aren’t going to offer a pitched battle or concentrate themselves in obvious places. They will melt away and have to be rooted out of the woodwork, which takes time and local knowledge. Meanwhile, the cartels will send a few terrorists at a time to attack our forces in small actions. Local people will be scared to give information, and not necessarily happy with yankee invaders.
Send too few troops and keep them away from the public, and they will be vulnerable to ambushes, and unable to gain the intel needed to crush the cartels. Send large numbers and let them mix with the locals, and the cartels are going to make sure to supply our troops with affordable drink, drugs, cartel putas, and offers of easy wealth. Even if only a few percent are turned, every mission will be compromised. How could this NOT go wrong?
I see President Trump as floating an idea he has no intention of actually doing, just to remind the Mexican government that working with him would be so much wiser than not.