State warns that Americans traveling near the U.S. border in Mexico might have difficulty distinguishing between the criminals, the police and the military.

"U.S. citizens are urged to be alert to safety and security concerns when visiting the border region," says the alert. "Criminals are armed with a wide array of sophisticated weapons. In some cases, assailants have worn full or partial police or military uniforms and have used vehicles that resemble police vehicles."

In December, Justice published the National Drug Threat Assessment for 2009. It says Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) threaten not only the U.S. border, but also the interior of our country.

"Mexican DTOs represent the greatest organized crime threat to the United States," says the threat assessment. "The influence of Mexican DTOs over domestic drug trafficking is unrivaled. In fact, intelligence estimates indicate a vast majority of the cocaine available in U.S. drug markets is smuggled by Mexican DTOs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Mexican DTOs control drug distribution in most U.S. cities, and they are gaining strength in markets that they do not yet control."

Because Bush did not secure our border, no corner of America is now secure against these Mexico-based crime syndicates. "Law enforcement reporting indicates that Mexican DTOs maintain drug distribution networks or supply drugs to distributors in at least 230 U.S. cities," says Justice.

This brings us back to Bush's meeting Tuesday with Calderon. In the public part of this meeting, Bush did not directly say that the United States should enforce its border and stop illegal drugs and drug smugglers from entering our country and finding their way into our schoolyards, parks and parking lots.

But he did say Americans should consume fewer drugs from Mexico and send fewer guns south. "The less drugs we use, the less pressure there will be in Mexico," he said. "We have got responsibilities to help prevent guns from going from the United States to Mexico."

Bush blamed Americans first.

Where the blame truly lies is with him. America was surely capable in the last eight years of securing her southern border. We did not lack the manpower or the engineering capability to do it. We did not lack a popular consensus that it should be done. What we lacked was a president who wanted to do it.