The Canadian Red Army announces it is doubling its complement in light of the current international situation. On the eve of the PAL-SAU summit in Brazilia, the PAL Committee on Nutrition announces a further cut of 2000 calories in the basic monthly food ration. PAL and SAU sign a mutual defense pact as part of the Brazilia Accords. Border incidents increase as SAU planes begin bombing refugee camps in Eastern American on the grounds that the camps are havens for terrorists. PAL follows suit.
All factions begin to mobilize forces.
The ESC announces that it wishes to keep relations open but that it is tied to Eastern American and Canada by a mutual defense pact. PAL strategists misinterpret the announcement as on of reluctance to intervene and plan an attack against PREA forces scattered thinly across the Great Plains. With the coming of the Spring, PAL and SAU armies crash across the Eastern American border, driving back the outnumbered and ill-equipped ESC and PREA divisions of the Rio Grande and Platte Fronts. Fighting breaks out in Asia. Spread far too thinly, the ESC is unable to hold all fronts adequately on its own and so more and more of the burden of defense in America falls on the shoulders of American and Canadian troops.