For decades the United States has prosecuted a "war on drugs," with limited success in reducing the quantity of illegal drugs and number of drug abusers. In Mexico, however, the war on drugs has become literally a war, with armies of federal troops and police facing off against often larger armies of private gunmen.

Since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006, more than 4,000 people have died in drug-related violence. That number includes more than 450 slain police officers.

Reporting from Culiacan, Mexico, a city of 750,000 at the heart of the Sinaloa drug cartel, the Chronicle's Dudley Althaus tallies more than 330 people killed there this year, with 35 state, local and federal officers gunned down. On Tuesday, gunmen with grenades killed seven police officers and mortally wounded another.

In recent weeks, drug traffickers have assassinated the chief of the federal police, Edgar Millan, and the police chief of Juarez. His deputy resigned. In January, cartel members posted a list of police officers targeted for death; 17 have since been slain.

At a time when law enforcement cooperation between the United States and Mexico is more important than ever, the two countries are threatening to turn their backs on each other. The U.S. Congress wants to cut President Bush's Merida Initiative, which proposes $500 million to finance Mexico's anti-drug efforts. More annoying to Mexico, Congress wants to attach human rights conditions to the aid, causing some Mexican officials to threaten to turn it down. That would benefit neither country, but would boost Calderon's standing at home.

Because of the corrupting influence of billions of narco-dollars, the battle against traffickers will always be imperfect. But the United States cannot stand by while drug cartels turn much of Mexico into a lawless, bloody empire.

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