A few months ago there was a lot of bumpf going on in the media about whether Obama would emulate Franklin Roosevelt.
Roosevelt kept the U.S. out of World War Two until 1942. Canada was at war in 1939. Roosevelt supported Canada in the war before America got into it by buiding warplanes, parking them at the border, and allowing Canadians to cross over and tow them across into Canadian territory.
Last night one of the nostalgic A.M. radio stations played a tape of Bob Hope entertaining Canadian soldiers at Camp Borden in Ontario in 1944. Hope sang his famous "Thanks for the Memories" theme song with the lyrics alterted to praise the alliance between Canada and the U.S. and to remark on the "open" border between the two countries.
Although Hope has since passed from the scene, Canada is still involved in military alliances with the United States, NATO, NORAD and in joint command operations in Afghanistan.
This story appeared this morning courtesy of Canadian Press.
WASHINGTON -- A senior official in the Obama administration doused hopes yesterday that the Canadian border will be treated differently than the beefed-up Mexican boundary where drug violence is escalating.
"One of the things that we need to be sensitive to is the very real feelings among southern border states and in Mexico that if things are being done on the Mexican border, they should also be done on the Canadian border," Janet Napolitano, secretary of homeland security, told a Canada-U.S. border conference.
She also said there would be no further delay of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which will require adults entering the United States from Canada to present a passport as of June 1. "It is a real border and we need to address it as a real border," she said.
If this is a true reflection of the current state of Obamaland thinking about international cooperation, then I think he will come to resemble the 5th President, James Monroe, who is best remembered for the "Monroe Doctrine" advising Europeans to stay out of America's back yard, except in this case, we are the Europeans.
It seems that military alliances no longer have the mystique they used to have.
1 comment:
As someone who has crossed the border with passport available but not necessarily requested, for over 20 years (it's a foreign country), I could care less about this development. I only expect/hope that after the usual teething problems, delays can be reduced.
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