Revelation: "Bill Clinton Started It, We Finished It, And Mexico Approves"
the latest spin... read it and weep...
story.news.yahoo.com
Bush, Fox Agree on Immigration, Iraq
By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer
MONTERREY, Mexico - President Bush (news - web sites) and Mexican President Vicente Fox (news - web sites) found agreement Monday on the contentious issues of immigration and Iraq (news - web sites), ending two years of discord that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Fox wholeheartedly embraced Bush's immigration proposal to grant legal status to millions of undocumented workers in the United States, most of them from Mexico. "What else can we wish?" Fox said at a news conference with Bush.
The two leaders met before the opening of a 34-nation hemispheric summit dealing with issues such as poverty, trade, corruption and unhappiness in Latin America about new U.S. security measures to combat terrorism.
In the news conference, Bush dismissed suggestions that his new immigration proposal was an election-year gambit to attract Hispanic voters in America.
"It recognizes the reality of our country," Bush said of his plan. "The truth is, the vast majority of foreign workers in America are from Mexico."
However, Bush predicted, "There will be politics probably involved in whether or not it passes Congress."
Fox gave the proposal his cautious support last week, though Thursday, speaking at a school in Mexico City, Fox suggested it fell short. "We're going for more," he said.
But Monday, with the American president at his side, Fox expressed no reservations.
"This is a very important step forward," Fox said.
And Fox said his government was firmly in charge of security at Mexican airports where flights depart for the United States.
Mexican officials recently complained that Washington was pushing for cancellation of airline flights without providing hard evidence of security threats.
Governments from Mexico to Brazil have cried foul over U.S. measures to photograph and fingerprint visiting foreigners and to cancel airline flights over what some call dubious evidence of possible attacks.
"In reference to safety matters on the airports and the flights, that is a sovereign decision in Mexico," Fox said. "There is no intervention in the direct operation of any other official agent from abroad."
Bush also had a brief but friendly meeting with Chilean President Ricardo Lagos. Bush applauded the signing last year of a free-trade pact between the United States and Chile; Lagos told the Chilean news media that Bush's "Spanish is improving very much."
At a ceremony formally opening the summit Monday evening, Bush called on his fellow leaders to "stand with the brave people of Cuba, who for nearly a half-century have endured tyranny and repression."
"Dictatorship has no place in the Americas," Bush said. "We must all work for a rapid, peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba."
But the spotlight here was on Bush and his host, and the two leaders sought to project unity after two rocky years.
The Sept. 11 attacks distracted Bush from the immigration overhaul that Fox had appealed for, and relations cooled further when Mexico refused to support the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
In August 2002, Fox canceled a visit to Bush's ranch to protest the Texas execution of police killer Javier Suarez Medina.
In a gesture of reconciliation, Bush re-invited Fox to his Texas ranch March 5-6, and Fox accepted.
They sought to emphasize agreement on postwar Iraq, too. Fox congratulated Bush for the capture of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) by American forces. "He will be taken to trial, to judgment. We fully support that," the Mexican president said.
Bush offered a forceful defense of the war, despite U.S. casualty totals approaching 500. "The decision I made is the right one for America. And history will provide it is the right one for the world," he said.
On another issue, Bush declined to criticize former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, whose new book says the administration aimed to topple the Iraqi government even before the Sept. 11 attacks.
"First, let me say I appreciate former Secretary O'Neill's service to our country," Bush said. Bush recalled grappling with a series of challenges during O'Neill's two-year tenure, including the terror attacks and the recession.
Bush said that when he became president, he inherited a policy of "regime change" from former President Clinton (news - web sites) and adopted it as his own. "So we were fashioning policy along those lines and then all of a sudden Sept. 11 hit," he said.
The trip was Bush's fourth to Mexico since he took office nearly three years ago, more than to any other country. He brought his wife, Laura, and daughter Jenna on the trip, and they sat just in front of him during his news conference with Fox.
Monterrey is a city of heavy industry, and the family's motorcade passed warehouses and factories bearing such familiar names as Whirlpool and Nextel, as well as other reminders that this city is just 2 1/2 hours from the U.S. border. The news conference was held across the street from a JC Penney store.
Men digging ditches alongside the road stopped and leaned on their tools to watch his entourage pass by, and one man and his young child waved American flags.
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i guess that settles it once and for all, eh?
why we invaded iraq, how it saved the world,
and how indebted one man and his young child
in monterrey, mexico are to us.
-elpolvo |
