But if he is perceived at having refused to close the border to buses bringing in sick Mexicans, or airports to planes coming in from Mexico City, so as not to offend the open-borders crowd, and a deadly epidemic ensues, full responsibility will be his. And he will pay a far greater price than George W. Bush did for being AWOL in Katrina.

For a president's first duty is not to the NAFTA-mandated free flow of goods and people between the United States and Mexico, but to protect the health and lives of the American people.

In the 1940s, it was not uncommon, when there was an outbreak of measles, mumps, chicken pox, scarlet fever or polio, for homes and families to be quarantined until it could be demonstrated to health authorities that everyone in the house was free of the disease.

Today's political correctness means we cannot discriminate against individuals who may bring in infectious diseases like AIDS.

Under NAFTA, GATT and globalization, America threw open her doors to mass immigration and accepted an invasion of illegal aliens that brought 12 million to 20 million into the country.

With them has come a raft of diseases never seen here before, or eradicated years ago: multiple drug resistant tuberculosis, malaria, leprosy, measles, syphilis, Chagas disease, dengue fever and new strains of hepatitis. Even bed bugs have invaded half the American states.

However "mild" Mexican swine flu may prove to be, it is wreaking havoc in Mexico. And, already, that country is suffering from a collapse in the price of oil it sells to the United States, a reduction in the remittances sent back from Mexican workers in the United States due to the downturn here and a collapse in tourism due to the cartels war that took 6,000 lives last year.

Now, with tourists fleeing, hotels emptying out and athletic events being canceled, Mexico could be hit with a second devastating economic blow, from which she does not soon recover.

In January, the U.S. Joint Forces Command identified two large nations in real danger of "rapid and sudden collapse."

One was Pakistan, the other Mexico.

Unfortunately, the boys at the JFC seem to have gotten it right.