WAYNE ALLYN ROOT: How long can U.S. tolerate Mexican drug cartels?

It’s time to draw a line in the sand.

A precious American Mormon family was viciously massacred in Mexico by the Mexican cartels. Like animals in the street. They murdered women and children — even 8-month-old twins. Members of these cartels have no regard for human life.

Let this be the moment Americans wake up. We have fought and defeated bad guys all over the world. We defeated the Nazis. We invaded Panama just to arrest bad guy Manuel Noriega.

What just happened in Mexico is an act of war. It’s time for justice.

Narcos and cartels own Mexico. The Mexican government is hopelessly inept, incompetent and bribed, bought and paid for. It’s up to America to act and to bring both justice and revenge for those American lives.

So many problems that plague America come from that open border with Mexico: violent crime; MS-13; violence against women and children; some $500 billion annually in illegal drugs; disease; human trafficking; the enormous costs of the welfare state; the destruction of our education and health care systems; and the costs for cops, courts, prisons — all soaring because of illegal immigration.

According to Bureau of Justice Statistics, noncitizens make up 7 percent of the U.S. population but accounted for 15 percent of all federal arrests in 2018. Most of them entered this country through that lawless, open border with Mexico. Not everyone who crosses that border is a criminal or bad, of course. But some are — and they are killing American citizens. We just don’t notice, because it’s one American at a time.

This isn’t about one dead American family in Mexico. This is about what the bad people coming across that border have been doing to us, on American soil, every day, for decades.

The cartels have been at war with us for decades. We looked the other way. We made believe that “what happens in Mexico, stays in Mexico.” But it doesn’t. The chickens have come home to roost.

Let this be the wake-up call. The clarion call. The defining moment.

First, build that wall and secure our border, our sovereignty and our safety as a nation. We owe that to our children.

Second, Syria was a good start. End the meaningless wars across the globe. Redeploy our troops on the border with Mexico. Spend our military budget on protecting our country and our citizens. This is the war that matters.

Third, declare war against the cartels, Mr. President. Consider something like that surgical strike against IS in Syria. When possible, bring these cartel leaders back to the United States to face the death penalty.

Everything changed with the massacre of this American family in Mexico. Women and children were slaughtered. Don’t let it be in vain. Make them heroes. It’s time to stop denying the threat at our border so close to home.

Contact Wayne Allyn Root at Wayne@ROOTforAmerica.com. Hear or watch the nationally syndicated “WAR Now: The Wayne Allyn Root Show” from 3 to 6 p.m. daily at 790 Talk Now and at 5 p.m. on Newsmax TV.