Bush: 2002 Great Year For America

CRAWFORD, Texas, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Declaring that 2002 would be a "great year for America," President Bush on Monday pledged that his administration would continue "to pursue our mission in fighting terror" and concentrate on homeland and border security in the coming year.

In a brief exchange with reporters, Bush said that in 2002, the administration is going to "focus on health, in terms of making the public health system work." He said they are also reviewing visa and immigration policies to increase security. He said the policies along the borders with Canada and Mexico will be reviewed as well.

Bush said the government has people working overtime to protect the country and that a "cap" of fighter aircraft is still flying over America even on New Year's Eve. "Anybody tries to harm an American, there's a good chance we're going to get him."

The president reiterated a conversation he had Saturday with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of India and President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan. He said he told the prime minister that if someone had attacked the U.S. Capitol as the Indian national parliament was attacked, "I'd feel angry, too.

"I explained to the Prime Minister that while I understood his anger, I was hoping they were not headed for war. I said give us a chance to work with President Musharraf to bring the terrorists to justice." Bush lauded Musharraf for bringing in two leaders of groups alleged to have made terrorist attacks against India.

The president who is spending his holiday at the Prairie Chapel Ranch near here, stopped to talk to reporters before at the Coffee Station, Crawford's only eatery. He had been clearing brush on the ranch, he said, and came down for lunch with a couple of members of his staff.

The president said at 55, he expected to have an early evening, turning in at "9 p.m. or maybe 10 p.m. So I don't plan anything glamorous on New Year's Eve." The president and Mrs. Bush are having two couples over for New Year's eve, the president said, including one couple from Lubbock, Texas that they've spent the holiday with for a decade.

Ask what he was going to have for lunch, the president said he was looking forward to a cheeseburger.

Ask if he had any New Year's resolutions he answered "eat fewer cheeseburgers."