As the U.S. grapples with how to best deal with the Central American countries of El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala and what is the best way to curb illegal immigration, it needs only to look at two scenarios, Iraq and Panama, the two countries that we invaded with our military and tried to rebuild. While Iraq is seemingly a failure, Panama is thriving 30 years later. Why is that? No seriously, why is that? I think it has to do with the fact that one country was a democracy prior and the other wasn’t. One is surrounded by dictators while the other isn’t but mainly because one uses our currency as the every day currency while the other doesn’t. So it seems that, while our current leadership tries to figure out a way to curb immigration by taking down the drug trade and introducing business opportunities, as I read in a recent article, and I applaud those efforts, wish I had thought of that, the best way to get that desired result is to look no further than why Panama worked and you don’t see an over flow of Panamanians at our border. It seems that if you find a way to invade, and the same reasons that you invaded Panama might work,, and you use the same nation rebuilding tactics in those countries, introduce the American Dollar as the main currency, you will get your desired result and you will cure immigration once and for all and you will undoubtedly go down as one of the most effective administrations in the history of this country. You will also have the added bonus of controlling those countries currency, as we are the only country that prints the American Dollar. Panama worked, make that your blue print. I get that an “invasion” might be a tad much… Figure out another way to make the U.S. Dollar their every day currency. I guarantee you it will work or my name isn’t Orville Redenbaucher. Alright, it isn’t and I can’t guarantee it will work but it did in Panama.

There are a lot of unseen bonuses if their currency was our dollar but the biggest is your influence over anyone from the east (China) trying to influence countries in our backyard. Plus the Euro is a perfect example on how expanding a currency can make it stronger. Prior to the formation of the Euro, there were maybe two or three currencies in Europe that were stronger than ours, now, all of Europe has a stronger currency than the U.S.. I’m not saying it has to be the answer but it would resolve a lot of problems on this side of the Atlantic. I know that the fear is that we would be the Germany of the Euro on this side but that kind of selfish attitude is why China is going to surpass us as the superpower of the world. Stop being selfish and start thinking out of the box a little.