Posted on 06/27/2005 5:14:34 PM PDT by hedgetrimmer
Free Trade: Rep. James Moran (news, bio, voting record) leans left and serves a large Salvadoran-American constituency. He's also a serious man who recognizes a growing potential for instability and conflict in the Americas.The Democrat from Virginia supports the Central America Free Trade Agreement. Unlike most in his party, Moran knows this isn't "Bush's" treaty. It's America's long-term interest no matter who's in office 10 years from now. It's about much more than just trade.
From his point of view, it's something very unlike what Democrats see as the Bush approach to national security. Rather than a cold war, a hot war or a pre-emptive war, CAFTA is about preventing war. This trade pact will give struggling Central American and Caribbean states a fighting chance to develop into prosperous democracies through access to markets.
CAFTA would also let these governments beat off the snares of crime, foreign meddling and populism, all tangible threats to vulnerable states that history shows can lead to growing prospects of fighting the atrocious wars of the 1980s all over again.
The states in this alliance are very different. Costa Rica is a respected old democracy. Nicaragua is an extremely fragile state under political siege. El Salvador is a rising star that has transformed itself on belief in free markets. Dominican Republic has been knocked flat by corruption and is trying to get up. Guatemala is making baby steps of progress.
Every single one will be better off with the certainty of CAFTA.
Two decades ago, nearly all of them were awash in war. Communist guerrillas were poised to take control of the region. Today, there are many success stories, such as El Salvador's, but no nation is bulletproof. There are vulnerabilities that will grow if CAFTA is not passed. For starters, this is an era of illegal immigration. Instability exacerbates it.
"If Central America does not have the capability to generate jobs, we are not going to be able to stop this," warned President Tony Saca of El Salvador in a Los Angeles speech last month.
Discouragement over lack of opportunity is a hornet's nest of opportunity for demagogues. In El Salvador, Schafik Handal, a far-left dinosaur, is on the rise among some voters who see no future.
Handal hangs out with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez and the sort who itch to topple governments, again and again, Bolivia-style, until they get the dictator they want, irrespective of what the voters choose.
In Nicaragua, the danger is even more real, with Daniel Ortega, the loser of the Contra War, now politically manipulating courts to paralyze Nicaragua's president, Enrique Bolanos, because Bolanos prosecuted corruption. Ortega is detested in Nicaragua and cannot win power honestly through elections, but nevertheless has been able to amass power at the expense of democracy.
Every one of these issues is rooted in poverty and isolation, the same fate Democrats would condemn these countries to if they have their way and quash CAFTA. It's a step downward, if that can be believed, from their views about the region 25 years ago.
Back in the 1980s, many Democrats seemed sympathetic to the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, but were right to recognize that war in itself is an enemy. We all know of war's potential to rob a region of decades of development. Its capacity to create dictators. Its killing of innocents, its inevitable lies, its brutalization of survivors and its tendency to spill over borders.
Those who have spent time in the region or who know Central American immigrants know what's at stake now. Just talk to people even on the democratic left in Central America to know that CAFTA is supported by countries that want peace and hated by totalitarians on the fringe. And if this trade treaty doesn't pass, things may go very wrong in that region. Again.
Then CAFTA was about "leveling the playing field" and "lifting Central America out of poverty".
Now CAFTA prevents war.
Its a floor polish! Its a dessert topping! What'll it be next?
Why do I CAFTA ? Because!!
I'm betting that CAFTA prevents global warming.
PING
Not every war needs preventing: conflict unresolved is conflict postponed, and this is what war prevention (or non-decisive conclusion) means most of the time.
LOL
Good post.
CAFTA is about free trade.
Free trade is good; for you, for me, and for them... and for the world.
Good post.
CAFTA is about free trade.
Free trade is good; for you, for me, and for them... and for the world.
Why do I CAFTA ? Because!!
Can't go to sleep at night?
Try, DECAFTA, all the benefits and NO harsh side effects!
Brought to you by Juan Valdes.
the dreaded double post.
how does that happen...?
the dreaded double post.
how does that happen...?
Juan Valdes. The little bean picker and his donkey.
Just think about the United States integrating economically with countries that have communist guerillas running around killing people. Like NAFTA, the borders will be opened to these countries. The federal government will tell our border agents to stand down when people from these countries enter ours because to stop them would be a "barrier to trade".
I can't imagine any patriotic American that would wish an influx of Salvadorian communist guerillas upon the American people, but they will come here to get money for their cause.
Now I'm confused. Free Trade promotes stability and diminishes revolution? And we still trade with China and Viet Nam?
You can go hang with your friends over here if you like-->
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1431924/posts
Have you ever considered that it just might?
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