Posted on 05/27/2004 10:57:27 AM PDT by TexKat
GUADALAJARA, Mexico (Reuters) - The United States' occupation of Iraq will come under fire at a summit of European and Latin American leaders on Friday but they will pledge more action in the fight against terrorism.
The U.S.-led war was firmly opposed across much of Europe and Latin America, and the mounting violence in Iraq has many leaders fearing the situation is spinning out of control.
President Bush's attempts to rally support for his Iraq strategy have been seriously undermined by the photographs and video tapes of American soldiers abusing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners.
There are several U.S. partners on Iraq at the summit of 58 European Union, Latin American and Caribbean nations here on Friday. But Bush's staunchest ally, Britain's Tony Blair, stayed away and sent his deputy, John Prescott, instead.
The buzzword of the Guadalajara meeting will be "multilateralism," diplomatic code for criticism of Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq without U.N. backing.
"There is no international order if it is not through multilateralism and the rules of international legality. If there is no multilateralism, there is international disorder," said Spain's new prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Zapatero, who won in an upset fueled by outrage over the Iraq war and a perceived link to increased terror risk, has called the occupation a "fiasco" and ordered the withdrawal of Spain's troops in Iraq as soon as he took office last month.
Even Mexican President Vicente Fox, who has made closer ties to the United States a central policy goal, criticized Bush's Iraq policy this week and said the lessons of the last year were clear.
"For us, there is no doubt. It has to be the multilateral path and we have to put an end to unilateral procedures and any nation becoming the world's policeman and the fixer of the world's problems," Fox told Reuters.
PRISONER ABUSE
Leaders at the one-day summit meeting in Mexico's western city of Guadalajara said they will call for tighter cooperation in fighting terrorism and reforms to strengthen the United Nations. They will also condemn the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
But, while they will call for the punishment of anyone who abused prisoners, they will not pin the blame directly on the Bush administration.
"Those who should be condemned, those who should assume responsibility, are logically those who did wrong, not a people, not a country," Zapatero told a Mexico City news conference on Wednesday night.
Cuban President Fidel Castro pulled out of the summit meeting in disgust at what he called European "complicity" and Latin America's "submission" to U.S. policies against Cuba.
"The complicity of the European Union with the U.S. crimes and aggressions against Cuba ... make it unworthy of being taken seriously by our people," Castro said in a letter loaded with fiery rhetoric against many of the summit leaders.
France and Germany led opposition to the Iraq war last year and are now pressuring Washington at the United Nations to give Iraqis more authority over their future.
French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder are among the leaders attending the summit, and security was tight in the narrow streets of the city's historic center.
About a dozen EU nations have troops in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, including seven central and east European states among the 10 new members to join the EU on May 1.
But most of them have little more than a symbolic presence in Iraq and support is even weaker in Latin America, where only four countries sent troops and only one -- El Salvador -- has stayed the course.
No. There is already international disorder because of the terrorists. You either join us to defeat them or STFU.
You were very mild compared to what I was thinking.
I wonder. . .is the violence in Iraq really "mounting?" This article is misleading form the get go.
I hope the Mexicans don't use President Bush as their pinata at the summit.
From what I've already seen this year on a daily basis, they're all probably going to beat him to a pulp.
There appears to be very little fight in the Texan.
I wish he would tell them to STFU.
IMHO.
"In Tejas, we have a word for Y'all.... CLYMER!"
It was deal with well if not brilliantly. This is somehow a failure. The fact are all there and yet the distortion has taken root in the minds of millions of people. It is exactly like the Tet offensive and it is in many cases actually the same liars lying now that lied then.
We can seem to learn nothing.
Literally? I've wondered if the summit is a proposed target.
I understand there will be no protesting any of the G8 leadership on the Island?
Bush needs to take a very, very strong stand against the terrorist problem and state that the world's civilized countries must unite against the terrorists. Insist the U.S. has been proven correct in the action the coalition took in Iraq. Ask these countries - are you a Neville Chamberlain or a Winston Churchill?
I'm from Texas
That is not biased. No sirree. That is out and out MEDIA LYING. Fact is, we just WON a major victory in deflating al-Sadr's insurgency. He is on the run and is now looking to 'cut a deal' the classic way terrorist losers can slink off and escape the noose.
Violence isnt mounting, it is reducing.
Well according to all reports, the "media" is afraid to leave their hotel rooms in Iraq so the real question is "how much of their reporting is just made up in the hotel bar"?
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