WSJ: The Bloody Coast -- The French have aa Iraq epiphany in West Africa (Ivory Coast).

Wall Street Journal ^ | November 9, 2004 | Editorial

[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.

[Noachian]

Does that answer the question ?

If you mean my question: So why is our State Dept. holding France's hand?

No it doesn't.

The French troops are basically doing what American troops are doing in various parts of Iraq. The French find fault with our Iraq policy, but have no problem putting down rebel forces in the Ivory Coast.

Do the French have a right to act as they do? Yes.

Do American troops have the same right? Yes.

The French have a duel standard for foreign policy when it comes to America, and I see no reason for our government to let them forget that fact.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

The State Dept. may find it tactful, but this would be a perfect opportunity to come down hard on the French as hypocrits.

Condi's in the State Department now - so you never know.