PERRY BACKS SENDING U.S. TROOPS INTO MEXICO TO QUELL DRUG VIOLENCE

AUSTIN - Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday he would support sending U.S.
troops into Mexico to fight the drug war.

The Republican has long urged beefed-up security on the American side
of the violence-plagued border, but he said stronger tactics are
needed to defeat the drug cartels.

"You have a situation on the border where American citizens are being
killed, and you didn't see that back when George Bush was the
governor," Perry said in an interview with MSNBC.

Asked whether the U.S. should consider deploying troops inside Mexico,
Perry said the federal government should consider all options
"including the military."

"Obviously, Mexico has to approve any type of assistance that we can
give them. But the fact of the matter is these [drug gangs] are people
who are highly motivated for money, they are vicious, they are armed
to the teeth. And I want to see them defeated," he said.

"And any means we can to run these people off our border and to save
Americans' lives, we have to be engaged in."

In August, Perry gave President Barack Obama a handwritten letter
demanding the federal government do more to secure the border.

Perry said the additional National Guard troops the administration
authorized earlier this year are insufficient. Homeland Security
Secretary Janet Napolitano suggested Perry has the authority to deploy
as many Texas guardsmen as he sees fit, as long as he's willing to pay
for them.

Perry made the comments in San Diego, where he's attending the
Republican Governors Association that he will chair for the next year.

He said he hasn't changed his opposition to the auto bailout that kept
General Motors in business. Sixteen months after it emerged from
bankruptcy, GM began selling stock Thursday with a goal of repaying
taxpayer money the automaker received.

Perry said even if jobs would have been lost, the government shouldn't
have stepped in.

He also repeated his frequent statement that he doesn't want to be
president. Asked if his refusal was "Shermanesque," Perry didn't seem
to understand.

"Shermanesque? Help me on that one," Perry said.

The reporter explained it meant if nominated he wouldn't run, if
elected he wouldn't serve.

"How about Perryesque?" the governor said. "The fact of the matter is
I'm not running for the presidency of the United States - don't want to
be the president of the United States."