US sends ex-Navy SEAL Commander to train Mexican military to fight drug cartels

From the Houston Chronicle:

The U.S. government has dispatched a career Navy SEAL and anti-terrorism expert to the U.S. embassy in Mexico City to serve as liaison with Mexican troops waging war on gangsters.

Rear Adm. Colin Kilrain, a former senior commander of the U.S. Navy’s special forces who last year worked on anti-terrorism for the National Security Council, recently took up the post of military attaché. He arrives amid a rising debate over the role and effectiveness of Mexico’s military in President Felipe Calderon’s anti-gangster campaign.

“It is an interesting choice,” U.S. political scientist Roderic Camp, who has specialized in Mexico’s military, said of Kilrain’s appointment. “From the U.S. point of view, it is placing someone there who has special skills and experiences complementary to battling the cartels.”