MORE CARTEL WAR CASUALTIES: Three federal policemen were murdered and their bodies burned in Mexico’s Guerrero state. Their killers claimed the cops were crooked. Who knows the truth? The Cartel War officially began in December 2006. Mexico was battling well-financed criminal organizations long before December 2006, but that’s the month former President Calderon decided to use military forces to fight the cartels. That means we’re looking at a sad tenth anniversary. Here’s the StrategyPage Mexico update from ten years ago (mid- to late December 2006). Note the Mexican Army begins its Michoacan state operation on December 11.

Here’s a column on the Cartel War written in early 2008 — at the 13-month mark. It’s still useful background. This column’s from June 2013 and looks at President Enrique Pena Nieto’s decision to send a military-led expedition into Michoacan state.