Posted on 02/19/2003 12:13:14 PM PST by RussianDude
"I chose France". These are words of Saddam Hussein 30 years ago. Since then, no matter what was happening in the world French politics could not not rid themselves of France's biggest fan.
In December 1974 Jacques Chirac made an unbelievable speech. He said: "Nationalism in the right meaning of this word along with socialism are good tools of mobilizing energy of the society and therefore are ideas close to the heart of French people". Fans of national-socialism could not have said it better. But it was head of liberal government who said that. And this statement was addressed to Saddam Hussein. At that time honeymoon between France and Iraq was peaking. Back in 1972 President George Pompidou invited still #2 person in Iraq political elite Saddam Hussein to visit Paris on official visit. That was Saddam's first official trip outside Arab world. It was then, in Paris when Saddam said that he "chose France". It was time when many in Arab world viewed France as an alternative to Soviet Union or the United States. Iraq needed modern Western technologies and products. France on the other hand wanted oil. Iraqi leader assured France that nationalization of oil companies in Iraq won't hurt French. And so, the calculated marriage was born.
In 1974 Chirac visited Iraq and that's where he made his statement about nationalism and socialism. He also secured Iraqi contracts on French weaponry, technology and cooperation in the field of atomic energy. Iraqis wanted their own reactor and French agreed to sell it. It didn't matter to France that Baghdad first wanted graphite reactors but then settled for 93% uranium reactors which of course could build atomic bomb. Paris could not conceivably not know about Saddam's plans to build nuclear weapons. Money was more important for France than stability of the world.
Thesis that Soviet Union is responsible for arming Iraq is a myth. Saddam was buying everything from France: helicopters, armored vehicles, radars and paid in cash. Sometimes French were sending such novelties that their own army didn't not possess yet. In 1975 Iraq bought "Mirages" which it later used for delivering chemical and biological weapons. The honeymoon continued to be in full swing during Iraq-Iran war. Not only France continued to send weapons to Iraq but also banned sending the weapons to Iran, even though Tegheran has already paid for the weapons. French military industry made an enormous profit. Only in 1980 and 1981 alone it made 4 billion dollars. But that's not all. In 1983 Iranian army successfully countered and was ready to attack Iraq-proper. In desperation Iraqi dictator planned to attack Iran's Achilles' heel: two Iranian oil terminals in the Gulf as well as tankers which carried Iranian oil. That threatened to be a catastrophe for the nations of the Gulf and to the West, but apparently not to France. France could not say "no" to Saddam. Iraq needed rockets "Exoset"(?) and the planes "Super Etandar"(?) to carry out this assault. France no longer produced them, so Francois Mitterand decided to send 5 planes which were in use by French army itself.
The price was to be paid very soon. Iran declared terrorist war against France. French hostages were taken in Lebanon, in 1986 the series of terrorist acts bloodied Paris. France had not choice but to break diplomatic relations with Iran in 1987.
In 1991 Mitterand drastically changed France's stance, because Iraq could not pay as much as they used to. Only as a result Iran-Iraq war Iraqis owed $4 billion. Neverthless, in the mid-90's comeback of the Iraqi lobby was in full swing headed by current president Jacques Chirac and Roseline Bashleau(?) who is currently minister of ecology. Today, France has direct interest in Iraq. Negotiations are underway to get the rights for exploring two incredibly rich oil fields in the south of Iraq. The amount of oil there could provide France with oil for many dozens of years. If Saddam is to be overthrown France will get zilch. Also, France wants to be viewed in Arab world as not dependent on the United States and able to come up and defend its own opinions. This logic is also well understood by Saddam. 10 years ago he said: "Modern France only acts in its own interests, without any regard to the principles. There is no dignified role for France in international relations".
These national-socialism ideas were indeed very close to the heart of French people when Adolf's troops were strolling around Paris in the early 1940's.
To wit.... ( note in particular the hot links within this document)
I'm looking forward to your future posts.
An interesting conspiracy theory but nothing more.
RE: Like the critical support by the United States for Saddam and Iraq in their war with Iran.
And like the French support through the 1970s, trailing off since then, the limited era of US support during the 80s is dwarfed by the unending and consistent support rendered by Moscow since the original Baathist putsch. After all, when geopolitics are at stake, the International and the National Socialists seems to find ample common ground. Of notable interest are the similar patterns of support rendered to Syria and Iran. The common thread is Moscow. This is also common knowledge, albeit much supressed by Western media who apparently do not want to admit that the so called end of the Cold War was sold as being more than it really was. Contents may settle, size of packaging not indicative of net weight, etc.....
...and for the ping AWM ! This really does explain why Chirac is hot for Iraq and NOT hot to remove him. They've been in bed for 30 years! I'm at a loss for words. Incredible.
Let's Roll ! And say your prayers, Chirac, we don't roll on to Paris after Baghdad ! lol...sort of.
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