Mexican President Felipe Calderon has promised to send more than 2,500 additional military troops to his northeast border to deal with the growing violence.

We don't know whether to feel safer, or more at risk.

Calderon said he would deploy four more battalions, each with about 650 troops, to Mexico's northeast border. He and other officials also checked out new armored vehicles and other equipment that the military will use in their war against the various drug cartels that are battling them and each other for access to the lucrative illicit drug market in the United States.

We don't know if the new deployment was planned before last month's attack in San Luis Potosi that killed Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata and injured another agent, or if it is a reaction to it. It certainly reflects concerns over the increased risk of violence to innocent residents of border cities and towns.

Nor do we know if those people will feel any safer knowing that the military presence on their streets has increased. After all, many casualties have occurred from stray bullets during firefights between cartel members and soldiers in the middle of the street, in the middle of the day. It's no secret that some gang members have used innocent people as shields, even to the extent of barging into schools when they suspected that law enforcers were nearby.

We also have seen that such human barricades don't always keep the military at bay. When confrontation occurs, even bystanders have to fend for themselves.

Calderon also sought to reassure the public that the military occupation would not be permanent. He expressed hope that corruption could be purged from local and state police forces so that they could take over primary police duties.

Will the increased military presence frighten cartels into lowering their activities and profile? If history is any indication, it might not. Increasingly aggressive cartels might see the new deployment as a challenge to be overcome, or might simply decide to maintain its current activities. Either way, more troops means greater chances of confrontations that could leave more blood on the streets.

With that prospect, will Mexican residents welcome the new battalions, or will more of them begin to agree that interdiction efforts are a losing proposition, and that new tactics, even to the point of decriminalization — something Calderon also has suggested — need to be considered?

REPRINTED FROM THE NEW BERN SUN JOURNAL.