Summit of the Americas Leaves Region More Polarized

[Judi Lynn]

Summit of the Americas Leaves Region More Polarized
News Analysis, Teo Ballve,
New America Media, Nov 07, 2005

~snip~
In an effort to show that improving U.S. ties with Latin America would be a top priority of his administration, George W. Bush's first official trip abroad was to Mexico. "Muchos gracias, amigo," said the president in February 2001, thanking his Mexican counterpart for the welcome. President Bush added he felt "entre familia" (among family) by the warm reception of his Mexican hosts.

Since then, the administration's occupations elsewhere have caused relations between the U.S. and Latin America to sour. At the Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina last weekend, hemispheric relations took another stumble over a proposed trade agreement, further polarizing the region.

The 34-nation summit deteriorated into a referendum on the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The U.S. delegation and its allies supported renewed rounds of trade talks, while the nations of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) economic bloc -- Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay -- opposed movement on the FTAA negotiations, along with Venezuela.

The Mercosur countries, which will induct Venezuela as a full member next month, argued they must first build closer economic ties among themselves before joining a larger agreement with the United States. They also said that pending trade disputes should be dealt with under the rubric of the World Trade Organization meeting next month.
(snip/...)

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=9d59e70f98a34b4148051a372817f827

[BattyDem]

1. Did you ever notice that whenever Bush* gets involved ...

things get worse :eyes:

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. Chalk up one more disaster for bush.

[knowbody0]

3. that little idiot wrecks everything

he left the meeting 3 hours early to celebrate his aniversary with his stepford wife. nothing but rude

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. There's a shocker! Not!

Pinhead** tries to throw his weight around and it incites more hatred.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Bush continues to do more harm then good

where ever he goes. Maybe he should just go back to Crawford and spend the rest of his term bike riding? The world would be a much safer place if he did.

[Pirate Smile]

6. That is the Bush specialty - polarization - and that is the one thing at

which is always successful.

[BattyDem]

7. Remember this headline from November 5th?

US says 'real progress' made at Americas summit

So ... what happened to the "real progress" :eyes:

[Judi Lynn]

11. Amazing! There's no mystery something strange is writing our news.

It would be almost comical, if it weren't so damned disrespectful to the American people.

[Pirate Smile]

8. He UNITES his opponents. We know all about that.

[loudsue]

9. "I'm a uniter, not a divider". ROFL!!!

He's just totally disconnected from reality, with a serious identity crisis.

[cliss]

10. Amazing. Bush's trip was a complete disaster.

I'm sure his aides are wringing their hands, trying to spin it into something positive. "We're warming to Mexico", the headlines will blare.

Even though Vicente Fox is already on friendly terms with the Bush administration. Or they might try, "South America warms to trade agreements". Which is ridiculous because they seem to be joining together more every day, and that is against Bush.

Little fool. I've read that whenever they trot Bush out, his ratings go down. Look at the Social Security Fiasco. The "good news" about the Iraq war (there is none). If they keep him out of the limelight, people get pissed. If they drag him out, people get even more pissed.

They just can't win, and that's

Poetic Justice.