North American national borders would be virtually eliminated under plans being considered by senior business and political leaders from Canada, the United States and Mexico for a “NAFTA-plus,” continent-wide, customs-free zone with a common approach to trade, energy, immigration, law enforcement and security.A tri-national task force, chaired by former Liberal Party deputy prime minister John Manley, with the full backing of all three governments, is plotting the roadmap for this new, bolder alliance meant to compete with the European Union. William Weld, former governor of Massachusetts and Pedro Aspe, former Mexican finance minister, join Manley on the panel that reports directly to the Council on Foreign Relations.
The mission has the formal blessing of Tom Ridge, U.S. Homeland Security secretary, who is close with President Bush. The elimination of borders along the lines of the EU experiment seems to be high on the agenda of the panel.
“I think we’ve had 11 years of incrementalism, and during that time we’ve seen the EU expand its borders, eliminate borders among (member) countries and launch a common currency,” explains Manley in the diplomatic magazine Embassy. “We’re going to have to provide a vision that is more bold than incrementalism.
I warned you about this a few months ago. The EU took fifty years to reach its current point of a constitutional super-state, while we’re only ten years into the AU program that is being pushed by both factions of the bi-factional ruling party. Democrats may be morons, by nature or maleducated nurture,as I wrote today, but what excuse do Republicans have as their leaders continue to shred the Constitution?
There may well be another war to “preserve the Union”. I just wonder how many patriotic conservatives realize yet that the Patriot Act was referring to its targets, not its purpose.