Posted on 11/09/2004 5:47:21 AM PST by OESY
...Simmering tensions broke into the open Saturday when nine French peacekeeping soldiers were killed in an Ivorian government air raid. The French were enforcing a nearly two-year-old ceasefire between northern Muslim rebels and the Christian-dominated government in Abidjan, on the southern coast.
President Laurent Gbagbo's spokesman called the bombing a "mistake," but it looked, and worked, like a tailor-made provocation. Paris had no choice but to retaliate so it attacked and destroyed the state's tiny air force. French troops "occupied," if we may use that word, the two biggest airports. As if on cue, Mr. Gbagbo's lieutenants incited anti-French sentiment to bring violent mobs into the streets. French schools and businesses were looted. Hundreds are dead. "Everybody get your Frenchman" was a popular chant.
...The French acted unilaterally at first, without a U.N. green light.... France could reasonably say that the intervention saved lives....
In short, it's a mess -- or as French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier likes to say of Iraq, "a fiasco." The French at least now have a U.N. force of 6,220 on board. Paris this week called for an arms embargo and other sanctions against the Ivorian government.
This is all a notable contrast to the French position on Iraq. Only last week, President Jacques Chirac snubbed Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, at the European Union summit.
In the Ivory Coast, though, France has no trouble asserting what it deems to be its unilateral interests, and Mr. Chirac didn't ask the U.N. Security Council for permission to take the airports this weekend. He more or less asserts that he is seeking to do the right thing, namely rebuild a stable and peaceful country. The U.S. is firmly backing France in the Ivory Coast. Too bad France doesn't return the favor.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Wrong war, wrong place, wrong time.
The WSJ doesn't get it. The French were not there enforcing the peace. They were there helping the Muslim invaders. They were preventing the government from taking back its country. They were acting unilaterally, and they have now deliberately attacked the government of a sovereign nation.
Did the government deliberately kill French troops? We don't know that. They were bombing a rebel stronghold, where French troops were stationed, among their Muslim friends. They had a perfect moral and legal right to do that.
Some of the rebels are rebels. Others are invaders from the north. Ultimately it's just one more instance of Muslims invading black African countries and killing and enslaving the inhabitants. And the French out of sheer greed are fighting on the wrong side.
It's time that the U.S. came to the rescue of black Christians in Africa, who have been savagely persecuted for centuries by Muslim invaders.
this is the first time I read about the Muslim/Christian aspect of the conflict. From now on I will presuppose it, in Africa, and Southeast Asia, and oh, just about anywhere except central and South America. Give that 20 years.
So we 'support' them with words and do absolutely nothing else....bwahahahaha. A more subtle way to say 'up yours' Chirac.
You're several years too late. There are Islamic factions already in South America. Some in contact with the Marxist (who woulda thunk it?) rebels in Columbia, Peru and other countries....
"Why is the US backing France?"
You mean, in Ivory Coast ? Jeez, I don't know. It might have something to do with civil war, deliberate targeting of women, tribal warfare, the use of children as soldiers and a little drug-trafficking, not to mention the "Christian" government appointing machete-armed mobsters to hunt down white people whenever President Gbagbo feels he's not sufficiently supported by the Western Nations...
Believe me, it's no wonder the US asked France to help evacuate your expats there last year from the warm embrace of "Christian" government-ruled Abidjan.
As for attacking the warplanes that targeted French soldiers from my own Marine Tank regiments (and one American guy too), I don't think the US would react otherwise if, say, some Iraqi commander killed US Marines and then said "Oh, oopsie, it was just a small navigational mistake here". Especially after the same government has authorized its troops to snipe at your soldiers.
There's al Qaeda in Panama too.
Panamal Qaeda???
No (French) blood for cocoa and coffee!
I understand the significance of economics and payoffs in some of these cases but why are they supporting the muslims in their former African colony?
Woo hoo! Rub their noses in it a bit. The sting of the truth is a good thing.
So I thought as well - I knew that the story was much worse than presented here (both in the article and on FR).
The U.S. is the world’s top consumer of cocoa beans and processed cocoa products: It imported 627,000 tons of cocoa from cocoa-growing countries in 2000.
American’s spend $13 billion a year on chocolate.
This $13 billion US chocolate industry is heavily dominated by just two firms - Hershey's and M&M Mars - they control two-thirds of the market.
The major players in the cocoa processing market are Archer Daniels Midland Cocoa,Cargill Cocoa,Blommer Chocolate,Guittard Chocolate,and Barry Callebaut.
I thought it was the heavy Muslim influence in France out to desintegrate the Christian faction in the Ivory Coast
Yeah, Chirac thinks that's "the right thing to do!"
A prayer for the missionary families, one of which is from my town, that are trying to evacuate at this time . . .
The Ferench are just getting a warm up to what the Muslims will do on the streets of Paris in a few years.
France is dead. They will be an Islamic Republic and may drag down the rest of Europe.
The Dutch are seeing the tragic & fatal mistake Western Europe has made.
I spoke to Germans 20 years ago when they mentioned how American bases were being converted into asylum centers. I warned them about asylum cernters and third world immigrants.
We also need to protect our borders.
www.numbersusa.com
You can fax Congress for free with canned letters to STOP illegal immigrations. Numbersusa.com is very effective and is becoming feared & respected in Congress and the White House.
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