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no, it s a rule of law problem, and it really takes an all-of-government approach. so chairman mack and the foreign affairs committee called attention to this by first saying things have changed since 2007 since we put together the merit initiative which is the u.s. policy towards mexico. and it needs to be evolved and updated. we need to, we need to think across dod lessons learned, but it s primarily a law enforcement/rule of law/diplomacy, all of the elements of u.s. power need to come together here to support the mexican government in bringing about legal reform and rule of law programs inside of mexico. jon: there are so many parallels, it seems, to places like afghanistan where some of the good guys get shot dead in the streets by the insurgents. same kind of thing happens in mexico. yeah, absolutely. there are a lot of wonderful, brave people fighting the good fight in mexico every day, but there s also a lot of corruption. we need to be very careful about who we work with, ....
What about our agents taking weapons in mexico? they re certainly significant policy issue. that i know is being studied by the administration and the country of mexico. there is a lot of issues. one of the things we to consider is reciprocal aspect. and do we want to have law enforcement officials from other countries carrying weapons here in the united states, as well. significant issues that need to be carefully considered. heather: you mentioned what mexico is doing, is enough being done between a partnership between the u.s. and what more can be done in that respect? there has been a lot. i know until i retired, we were having regular meetings with our counterparts in mexico about cross border operations and intelligence sharing. that needs to continue to grow. there is certainly a lot of planning that goes on under the merit initiative. as i said a moment ago, mexico needs to take stronger stance of controlling its own borders and also provide another way of ....
The government of mexico, were clearly colluding in those murders. now you have a completely different situation, one of the reasons you have massive violence is you have a government, as you said, that s finally cracking down on the cartel, forcing the cartel to go after one another. we don t know, by the way, at this ambush, whether these drug cartels suddenly realized they had a u.s. diplomatic car coming through or or they panicked or had advance intelligence. bill: that s clearly an inside job and it s dangerous to know who you are talking to and who they re talking to in response. what will the u.s. do in response? look, we have, since president bush had a meeting with phil ao ep calderon, we ve had a merit initiative, a relative pittance of money. the obama administration has actually been holding up some of that money on relatively spurious grounds. there was a government accountability office report that came out last year which showed that even of all the money promised onl ....
That is a problem right on our border. megyn: what about that do you disagree with? let me start out by saying i agree with most everything that the ambassador is saying. we can and should do more. the $1.6 billion that our congress has committed to the merit initiative is a step in the right direction. but when you consider we spent a trillion dollars in iraq and afghanistan the past 10 years that puts it into more proper perspective. what most folks don t understand in our country and quite frankly many mexicans don t understand either are the actual facts. and the facts are these. mexico s homicide rates have continued to drop since 1997. last year they dropped from 17 per 100,000 in 1997 down to 14 this past year. mexico city, the cap tall of ....
As the u.s. government continues to bring morell money, $1.6 biion through the merit initiative over three years, that s a big step. also the united states government needsp to continue to shore up its borders and i think president obama certainly showed that by putting on $600 million more into the supplemental for this year. it will bring more resources to the borrowedder and also national guard will be a significant asset. julie: mexico is experienced one of the most significant levels of violence on the globe, 28,000 killedn the last four years. what if this violence spills over into the u.s. and what is our u.s. government need to do to solidify our border with mexico to pvent that from everha happening? you re right. 28,000 deaths over the last four years i as significant. greatest amount of deaths and loss of life anywhere on the globe. but i think clearly the point that needs to be viewed, that has not spilled over into the united states. that s not to say there is not a ce ....