Senator John McCain's speech on foreign policy last night addressed many things, not the least of which was a concerted effort to reintegrate the Americas as a unified hemisphere of shared history and future goals:

Four and a half decades ago, John Kennedy described the people of Latin America as our "firm and ancient friends, united by history and experience and by our determination to advance the values of American civilization." With globalization, our hemisphere has grown closer, more integrated, and more interdependent. Latin America today is increasingly vital to the fortunes of the United States. Americans north and south share a common geography and a common destiny. The countries of Latin America are the natural partners of the United States, and our northern neighbor Canada.

Relations with our southern neighbors must be governed by mutual respect, not by an imperial impulse or by anti-American demagoguery. The promise of North, Central, and South American life is too great for that. I believe the Americas can and must be the model for a new 21st century relationship between North and South. Ours can be the first completely democratic hemisphere, where trade is free across all borders, where the rule of law and the power of free markets advance the security and prosperity of all.

Hear, hear, although I would caution against the all-out optimism. In recent years there has been a disturbing tendency amongst Americans to disregard our Southern neighbors as passé and irrelevant to the global scene.This stems in part from U.S. media ignoring coverage of the region to an American public that tends to see Central and South America as little more than an extension of Mexico and our "immigration problems." Arguably, Latin America affects Americans' daily lives, on issues related toimmigration, trade, the environment,and energy issues (yes, we import more oil from our neighbors than from Saudi Arabia) more than any other region of the world.

If we do not give Latin America the attention it deserves, we forfeit the opportunity for strong alliances and prudent national security measures toward threatening states. Our lack of engagement will not leave a neutral vacuum; rather it will lead our enemies, and their proxies (i.e. Iran) to establish allianceswith the likes of Hugo Chavez.The United States has both friends and foes in Latin America, and it is time to engage our southern neighbors with eyes wide open.Only to our peril and declining international respect do we ignore their plight.