Mexico's Drug War Death Toll: 8,463 and Counting  A record-
breaking 5,612 people were executed in Mexico’s drug war in
2008, making the drug war more deadly than the drugs  Mexico's
daily El Universal, which began counting drug war executions
four years ago, reports that 5,612 people were executed in
Mexico’s drug war in 2008.  This year’s deaths more than doubled
2007’s total of over 2,700 executions.  By El Universal's
estimates, about 8,463 drug executions have occurred during the
first two years of Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s six-year
term in office.  Calderon deployed the army and federal police
to combat drug cartels almost immediately upon assuming office
in December 2006.  The 2008 death toll means that the drug war
in Mexico alone (that is, not including the copious number of
drug war deaths in Colombia) is more deadly than illicit drugs
in the United States, which is the biggest drug market in the
world and the destination for the overwhelming majority of the
American continent’s drugs.  In