Monday, November 05, 2007

To Unite -- Or Not

This one is for Tom Mannis, who has expressed concern about the so-called North American Union arising from the Security and Prosperity Partnership. I said I was doubtful, and God bless the ever reliable elected hacks and their bureaucrat backups for demonstrating yet again how the best laid plans of political elites can be turned to trash. If there is really going to be a North American Union it will have to roll over a bunch of flag waving, property owning citizens who aren't particularly interested in having their resources all tied up in knots for Big Brother's use. Let alone allowing proposals for power transmission lines, pipelines, and water diversions, that rise like so many mushrooms on manure, to see the light of day. Can you imagine going to war with Canada for its natural resources? NO?! Well maybe you need to unlock your mind for a minute. Consider this:

Canada is the USA's largest foreign supplier of energy. In 2006 Canada exported south 2.3 million barrels per day of oil and petroleum products (11% of U.S. supply); 3.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas (16% of US supply); and 41.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity (1% of US supply).

The biggest chunk of Canada's energy resources sit directly north of Montana, in Alberta—including 80% of its natural gas and the bulk of its crude supply. The crude, sunk deep in the tar sands below northern Alberta's subarctic boreal forests, were long considered too difficult and expensive to access. But recent soaring oil prices have changed this.


If it's water you want, they have that too and we work hard at getting it:

Journalist Philip Lee, in a series on the global water crisis for the Ottawa Citizen, noted that several Canadian politicians continued to openly push for water exports. A company called McCurdy Enterprises was seeking to export 49 billion liters of water a year from Newfoundland's Gisborne Lake—with the support of the province's Premier Roger Grimes

A California company, Sun Belt Water Inc., took Canada to court to force British Columbia to sell bulk water to the US, and claimed millions of dollars in damages for the business it says it has lost through Canada's refusal to adhere to what it claims are the terms of NAFTA.


So what would be our basis for going to war?

Since the signing of NAFTA, Canadian energy exports to the US cannot fall below 1993 levels. Does that include water? Legal scholars argue that once any Canadian water is exported south, it would become a commodity subject to the provisions of the trade agreement. NAFTA guarantees equal access to natural resources on either side of the US-Canadian line. So once the faucet is turned on, it may be impossible to turn it off: it could be a treaty violation and cause for war.

Once infrastructure—and therefore subsistence and survival in a highly organized society—is dependent on imported water, Canadian water resources become a US national security issue. Whether it is oil, electricity or water, any future Canadian effort to re-assert sovereign control over resources could be challenged by Washington as NAFTA-illegal—and, ultimately, a casus belli.


The writer has numerous article cites at the end of the essay if you want to follow up on his claims.

War with the Great White North may be a reach of course, but the stresses and strains at work here gladden my heart valves. It shows that it is still possible for Gulliverian national entities to be tied up in knots by the Lilliputian electorate, if enough of us break out the ropes and seize the moment.

3 comments:

wlfee1969 said...

I have recently begun researching the whole nau.
I am from the mid west, (missouri) It seems to me the goal here is to undermine the us economy to the point of panic in many other countries who have either bought our money or loaned it. The idea in my opinion is to put the "commoners" in financial peril so that we may see this union as an economic solution. many people see what is goibg on here, but the powers that be are stripping us slowly of our rights to do something about it. it doesnt take much any more to show up on the radar, infact just posting here could have implications for me by expressing deep discontent for unionizing yours and mine with mexico. I do not really forsee war between our countries, rather civil unrest within our own ifrastructures. I truely believe that we may end up fighting amongst ourselves atleast in the u.s. there is already a seed of racial hate that has been planted here. I think that serves a purpose to distract us from the real objective, but also to give the elites more power to justify the importance of one world unity. I feel that the COMMON people of Canada and the COMMON people of the u.s. should join together as SEPERATE nations but with a common goal and VOICE and truely protest all the sanctions on our freedom in the recent past and the ultimate sanction to come if this union does form. Life will have drastic change for the worse if we do not do something now.

Kheris said...

Mexico is the 'sick man' of the trio, and the concerns about unchecked illegal immigration are rampant enough to keep the NAU from occurring. No Democrat is going to publicly espouse it if they want to get elected.

As far as undermining the US economy, we are doing it to ourselves with the credit crunch and decline in housing. Add to that the decline of the dollar against foreign currencies and we may be setting up for a recession. Top it off with peak oil on the horizon and we'll be rearranging our lives fairly soon. All the talk I have seen on recession and peak oil never touches on the notion of the SPP or NAU as the savior of the national bacon.

I don't think the SPP or the NAU is going to go much beyond common interests.

wlfee1969 said...

I do agree that we are doing it to ourselves as far as housing and credit. But I also see alot of money whether borrowed or internal being spent carelessly on many different agendas that really do not benefit the common taxpayer. I also understand that a change of lifestyle is on the horizon for many in the population especially in the u.s. where we have taken for granted many of the earths natural resources... I moved back to the midwest from ny, because the economic impact of natural resources was far greater, so I thought, my thoughts were naive thinking that it would trickle into the economy here more slowly. It has started to pour. I am not well educated in govmt. I just go by what I see, and have started to follow/pay a little more attention to new laws/ bills being pushed that seem to etch away at the very foundation of basic human rights. It seems to me it has been very slow, and adjusting is easier that way for the masses. conspiracy??? Maybe I am just paranoid. I have no idea and will not accuse, I just hear alot from co-workers that have been on this earth for 50 to 65 plus years, and when you hear them talking amongst themselves about the future of the world/country it makes me stirrs my thoughts with different scenarios of our future. Sorry for the long rambling.