[hedgetrimmer]

Second, U.S. policy has wrongly but effectively been positioned by opponents as all about trade.

In fact, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, first agreed at the Miami Summit of the Americas in 1994, was actually the demand of hemispheric leaders themselves as a grand bargain for their other commitments in good governance and the rule of law, human rights, education, and the like

A "free trader" and globalist admits that "free trade" isn't about trade.

[hedgetrimmer]

Merging the hemisphere ping, or why does an NGO like the Council of the Americas and Americas Society have more sway over the US government than US citizens?

[IronJack]

NAFTA and the proposed CAFTA had very little to offer the US. NAFTA certainly hasn't improved relations between the US and Mexico or Canada. Even with CAFTA, we've got Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Vincente Fox in Mexico, Ignacio Lula de Silva in Brazil, and now Michelle Bachalet in Chile. Granted, all but Fox are South American, but the appeasment strategy doesn't seem to be working.

The forces arrayed against America are not just military. There's an economic war afoot, with as much or more at stake.