I believe the word you're looking for is quagmiro.
It might need an accent somewhere, I don't know.

One reason the US has failed to establish a rational drug policy in over 30 years is that our leaders continue to fight proxy drug wars in Mexico and other countries. The US's big myth is that if we can somehow stop those evil Mexican and Latin American drug lords our own drug problems will go away. Its easy to give military aid to governments and pressure them to wage battles within their borders as US voters don't care about casualties in Mexico. Much like liquor money during the US Prohibition, drug money is helping fuel violence and widespread corruption throughout Mexico's institutions. The real threat to the US is a failed state on our Southern Border. We need policies that support Mexican Institutions not encourage more violence and corruption.

On the supply side:
So many people these days cite the war on drugs as being futile and something that isn’t worth pursuing and I’m left to wonder whatever happened to standing up for virtue or for what is right? Many of the people responsible for the drug trade especially the ones at the top clearly show no respect for the most fundamental things that make us human, life itself being a prime example. Everyone seems to gloss over the fact that these are bad people doing bad things. Do we think that if we legalize drugs and stop the war drugs that these people are going to instantly jump to a more righteous endeavor? If we look at US history it’s clear that organized crime didn’t go away as soon as the prohibition on alcohol was lifted. Bad people do bad things. Are those responsible for the drug trade any less repugnant than are organizations like Al-Qaeda or heads of state and administrations in places like Sudan and North Korea.

On the demand side:
Drug use and abuse is not considered to be healthy or normative in any fashion. Most medical professionals call it maladaptive behavior, simply meaning that on a long enough timeline the behavior in question won’t sustain itself without negative consequences. In the case of drug use, legal and medical ramifications are the top two that come to mind most quickly. I wonder what statistics like average yearly income, age at death, amount of time spent in prison, and divorce rate would show for groups of people segmented by the types of drugs used and the length of time they used them. Maybe it’s a bad question because gathering those results and reporting on them accurately would be dubious at best. But not any less interesting to think about. At the end of the day, anyone that has any small idea as to what is going on right now in places like Juarez, Medellin, or the whole of Afghanistan would choose not to use drugs. Yet despite most knowing the personal consequences and some understanding the larger impact of being on the demand side of such a disgusting endeavor people continue using. I do understand that addicts no longer “choose”, but what I state still holds true for a large number of people. Do we really want to change policy in way that would reinforce a population of people that have such flawed or self-involved thinking?

I think the word you ar looking for is Afghanistan...

Probably the best way to improve things is by delivering education in a more cost effective and an accessible way. Similar situations exist in the African continent etc. Perhaps education in distance learning format with a model similar to micro finance would be the best way forward ?
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If the war was not justified then what should have been done back in 06? If we are talking about a national security threat I don't think that pushing for legalization would've been enough and not even the central aspect of an effective strategy. The degree of penetration of the cartels is not something to be minimized. Just consider for instance the way in which these groups have threatened journalists in the affected cities or the weakness, corruption, and lack of transparency that affect many Mexican local governments.
It is good to demand a more comprehensive strategy and to try put things in a different perspective. However it would be good to know if the author considers this problem to be a national security issue and if he thinks that the tools we had back in 2006 were enough to fight it.
Leaving the drug consumption issue aside, the fact is that the cartels achieved an impressive degree of power that no government that considers itself democratic could ignore and refuse to fight.