Canada and the USA then…
I live in Canada. The Canada/USA border is approximately 8,891 kilometres (5,525 miles) long and runs roughly along the 49th parallel. Canada has had a friendly relationship with the USA for more than two centuries, once we got over that little skirmish called “The War of 1812,” where Canada beat the US. The border was demilitarized shortly afterwards and became the “longest undefended International border in the world.” We had always enjoyed a large volume of trade and migration which helped strengthen the ties.
The US had become Canada’s largest market, and after the war the Canadian economy became dependent on smooth trade flows with the US so much that in 1971 when the US enacted the “Nixon Shock” economic policies (including a 10% tariff on all imports) it put the Canadian government into a panic. This led in a large part to the articulation of Prime Minister Trudeau’s “Third Option” policy of diversifying Canada’s trade and downgrading the importance of Canada – US relations. In a 1972 speech in Ottawa, Nixon declared the “special relationship” between Canada and the US dead. [Source: Wikipedia]
From then on, the US-Canadian relationship headed downhill. NAFTA, tariffs on softwood lumber, bans on beef, restrictions on wheat, magazines, and television, it all started looking bad for us here in Canada. The United States had stopped looking to us as a “partner” and started seeing us as the annoying little brother that was always tagging along with the big boys.
Once a Canadian could cross the US/Canada border with only a photo ID or a driver’s license shown to an agreeable US Customs agent at one of our many border crossings, pop over to the US to do some shopping and return the same day without question. Once, in order for a Canadian to fly into the US we only needed to show our ID to the airport agents, answer a couple routine questions and then be waved on through. We were comrades, we were trading partners, we had collaborations and friendships.
No more thanks to the events following September 11th, 2001.
The USA to come?
Here is where I see the USA in 10-15, maybe 20 years if they continue down their current path.
Imagine the entire country encircled by a 20 foot high wall similar to the wall between the USA and Mexico, only imagine it bigger, higher and defended by an armed militia representing “Homeland Security.” Guard towers, video surveillance, nobody enters or leaves the USA without prior written permission from a governmental authority. Imagine random security checks on average people for just walking down the street or for taking a photograph in a public place. Permits required in order to carry out conferences, assemblies or to be out after dark. If you’re thinking of the right of “freedom of assembly” given by the Constitution? Forget it. You happily gave up several of your Constitutional rights in the name of “a safe America.” Imagine special permissions being required to own a motor vehicle, there’s an oil shortage you know, and you can only operate that vehicle during certain times of the day, week and month depending on where you live and how important your job is to the country. Imagine the USA demarcated into “security zones,” possibly broken down along political lines where ordinary citizens are forbidden from crossing state lines without the proper security clearances and permits. Imagine a USA-only Internet, firewalled off from the rest of the world “for your own safety.”
Sound impossible? Improbable? Maybe. But maybe not.
Continued paranoia about the “forces trying to destroy the American way of life” is destroying them as surely as the “terrorists” are. Military spending is out of control. A war (or was it an invasion?) with Iraq started in 2003 continues to destroy the American economy. Technically the war was over about two weeks after it started, but the occupation of Iraq continues because the US claims the region is “fragile.” Billions of dollars of been spent fighting a war based on a lie in retribution for the attack on the World Trade Center. Someone had to pay for those attacks and they did. But where does the revenge end?
The USA is spending more money on a military action in another country that it is spending to keep it’s own people educated, fed, and sheltered. One B2 stealth bomber costs the US approximately $2.1 billion dollars and yet the education budget for the state of Arizona was only $1.5 billion dollars, and they have 30 of these bombers in service. Hundreds of people in the US go hungry, without shelter and without proper health care each day, but instead of spending money to help these people they spend $4.35 million on an M1 Abrams tank and they have approximately 5900 of these tanks in service. Imagine how much good the money from just a couple of these tanks could do.
Thousands of people are employed right now in order to keep this war going. But why? Is it because the war provides a convenient rally point? Is it just to keep them employed and doing something? Or perhaps it provides a convenient distraction from the real problems at hand—The US is destroying itself in order to keep it’s citizens unaware of what is going on around them. Every day we hear about security policy that takes another bit of freedom away from us. Air travel into the USA is becoming more and more impossible, soon we’ll all need to have travel permits and visas in order to cross the border. Normal citizens are under suspicion for “anomalous behaviour.” Everyone is a suspected terrorist until proven innocent.
America will soon cease to be the world’s “big brother” and the European Union will take over as the leader in World economy, if it hasn’t already. The oil standard is sure to switch to Euros in the next 5 years anyway. I see the EU expanding more quickly in the coming years to encompass a third of the planet. Already Iceland, Norway and Switzerland have signed up to be European Free Trade Association states and 10 or 11 other countries are poised to join the Union.
There is a grim future ahead for the USA and the rest of the world, especially Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia by association. With the upcoming election, hopefully the irrationalities of George Bush and his cronies will be reversed or at least diminished. I had hopes for this Obama character, but it seems that he has stopped looking at a “better America” and has started playing into the old political feuds of the old guard. Isn’t it time America started solving America’s problems and let the rest of the world worry about itself for a while? If they continue down the current path, I see America ceasing to be “The United States of America” and becoming “The American Republics” as the country breaks down along political lines and goes the way of the USSR.
The terrorists don’t need to destroy the American way of life, America is doing a fine job all on it’s own.
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