Steve Farrell
Thursday, Nov. 11, 2004

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  But Colin Powell’s post re-election visit with Mexico’s president, Vicente Fox, reminds us that not all is well, consistent and logical with the Bush Homeland Security plan.

I’m speaking about the administration’s resolve to move ahead with an old utopian, old European, old Eastern liberal establishment agenda item, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), a New World Leviathan that would feature, among other things, a borderless society for North and South America.

Understandably, on the campaign trail, Team Bush kept quiet about this nutty idea.

Mexico didn’t. A little over a month ago Mexico's newest border czar, Arturo Gonzalaz Cruz, called for the building of additional travel lanes at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border. And as if that wasn’t enough, he said he wanted to raise the number of border crossings, followed by – you guessed it – open borders with no checkpoints.

A great idea, don’t you think?

Mr. Cruz, a Tijuana businessman named in April by President Fox as the Mexican Foreign Ministry's institutional liaison for northern border affairs, said these changes were "necessary" to facilitate increased travel and trade between his country and the United States.

"I would like to see a border similar to the one that Europe has right now ... where they have common, very common objectives.

"They have a common economy. They have policies that transcend their borders. ...

"Travel across national borders in the European Union is unregulated, and citizens of EU member nations traverse borders as freely and easily as Americans cross state lines."

Sure, why not? Let’s follow Europe. Let’s all be one, one in trade, one in policy, one in economy, one in currency, one under a common North American constitution, till we have 'all things in common,' very much in common, to quote Cruz again – and that is the goal of the FTAA.

From a socialist standpoint, getting rid of national borders, alone, makes great sense. It makes it easier for the workers, the minorities of the world, to unite. Flood a nation with a group of outsiders and you can sway elections. But even better, forge permanent economic and political alliances rather than temporary trade and security alliances, and you can by and by usurp political power from the people of your partner state as you become a 'legitimate' part of THEIR lawmaking process.

A quick and easy path to radical political change.

And that's the point. Europe’s economic and military alliance, which began as part of the Marshall Plan, was supposed to act as a check against the advance of communism until Europe recovered, until Europe was strong again. That was the propaganda. Others knew better. Now all of Europe suffers under socialism, all together and all at once, without the Soviets ever having fired a shot.

That’s the point too.

Soon, it may be tough to tell the socialist EU apart from Russia and China. The rise in religious state-sponsored animosity toward religion is just one sign that they are well on their way, as is their growing animosity toward everything U.S.

Unlike the EU, however, the Bush administration wants an accelerated version – this is, after all, the 21st century.

This doesn’t make sense.

What good will it do us to fight terrorists over there even while we open wide our arms and our borders to millions of socialists and communists over here (with a few thousand terrorists among them)?

Besides, free trade should not be about surrendering our sovereignty, nor about creating another layer of government filled with un-elected, unaccountable bureaucrats. It should be just the opposite.

If you wish to know more about the FTAA, and what you can do to oppose it, visit stoptheftaa.org

NewsMax Pundit Steve Farrell is an associate professor of political economy, press agent for Defend Marriage (a project of United Families International), and the author of the inspirational novel “Dark Rose” (available at amazon.com).

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