Breaking Out of the Box; Tensions are rising on both sides of the border, again. Yet the only real solution is one that North American leaders aren't talking about.

Byline: Robert A. Pastor (PASTOR is the director of the Center for North American Studies at American University in Washington, D.C., and author of "Toward a North American Community: Lessons From the Old World for the New.")

Five years ago, U.S. President George W. Bush visited Mexican President Vicente Fox at his home in Guanajuato. The two pledged to consult their Canadian counterpart and together build "a North American economic community whose benefits reach the lesser-developed areas of the region and extend to the most vulnerable social groups in our countries." They have, in fact, made no progress toward those goals. Since then, the war in Iraq, friction ...