* The security challenges of Latin America--drug trafficking, narco-terrorism and crime--are best tackled with diplomatic engagement and partnerships, not with massive military force, says the top U.S. military officer overseeing Latin America.
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"Our job is not to launch Tomahawk missiles here. It's effectively to launch ideas," says Navy Adm. James Stavridis, commander of U.S. Southern Command.
"By doing that, maybe you avoid, a decade later, the need to be there with a Tomahawk missile," he says at a Surface Navy Association conference.
Stavridis believes that the Navy, for example, should create a "humanitarian surface group" ...