First, we already have a trade deal with Colombia.  This so-called 'free trade' agreement is just a different set of rules, to replace the current set of rules.  Not better or worse, and certainly no more 'free,' just a different set of rules.  Editorial boards of major papers should read the details before jumping in to suggest that we are somehow withholding access to our markets by failing to pass this particular deal.

Colombia is no more or less deserving of a rewritten trade deal than any number of countries around the world with which the US trades.  There is no more urgency for this deal than for any of the others the Administration is currently proposing.  Nor is there any particular political security risk that this particular set of trade rules would help forestall (again, read the details of the deal, editors).  One would think that after the debacle of US foreign policy in Iraq and indeed throughout the Middle East and South Asia, journalists, editors and media commentators would be just a little more skeptical of this Administration's playing of the global security card?  This trade deal will make us all safer in our beds, how?  The truth is, this deal will help bolster a regime in Colombia that has been notoriously bad on human rights.  The US has pursued this type of policy in Latin America before, and it has made us no safer as a nation.

The real beneficiaries of this deal would be US-based multinational corporations who want to expand investment in Colombia, and don't mind doing business with a notoriously corrupt and abusive regime.  We can only speculate that perhaps the reason for this very urgent push to pass the deal is that it is an election year, and the multinational corporations that have so generously supported Bush and Republican candidates in recent years have cause to believe the details in this deal may be the last slops in the trough for awhile.  Scrutiny of the deal by Democrats in Congress might raise uncomfortable questions about who really benefits, and the ways in which these corporations have been complicit in aiding and abetting the violence against trade unions, villagers and others in Colombia.

We deserve a close look at the details of this deal by Members of Congress in a deliberate and thoughtful manner, and at a time when the posturing of this political season is behind us.  Speaker Pelosi is right not to rush to approve another piece of corporate welfare at this time.