American Government: Greedy or Stupid?

No offence to my friends south of the 49th, but are you aware that you're stuck in Gawd's Little Acre, East of the Rock, West of the Hard Place?

For the 5th time, the dispute resolution panel of NAFTA has ruled in favour of Canada's position that duties on softwood lumber imports into the US are illegal, and for the 5th time, the American Government has responded with delay tactics to avoid coughing up the backpay they've unlawfully pocketed. Sadly, the US position is that they need time to "seek clarification" on the ruling...So either the US Government has the slowest learning curve in the world (FIVE TIMES PEOPLE), or they are thieving scoundrels.

Believe me, you don't have to bother pointing out the complete ineptness of Canada's politicians to me...it's a subject I'm fully versed on, and I'm seething in shame that we're still using tactics tantamount to bringing goosedown pillows to a gunfight. So you need not point out to me that the US Government is only part of the problem, I think I got that one myself Sparky.

But at the heart of my *ahem* dissatisfaction is that Canada shouldn't have even entered into a "Free Trade Agreement" with the US Government in the first place. I'm from the "Capitalism cannibalizes itself, given enough time" school of thought, and it was so obvious from the very start that the American side was calling all the shots, effectively making "Free Trade" an ironic cosmic practical joke on us. But then somehow, we suckered Mexico into joining up, and now someone else is feeling the pain of a certain male appendige in a certain anal orifice without the benefit of sufficient lubrication, so I'm not feeling so bad that we've spent so long bending over for the American Government.

So, the options are significantly limited...what motivates the American position on Softwood lumber? Is it greed, or should we start mass producing dunce caps for our American NAFTA and/or political counterparts?