FRANCE WILL NOT JOIN COALITION

AP

[Recovering_Democrat]

*********URGENT FROM THE AP***********

PARIS –– British Prime Minister Tony Blair fails to persuade France to join coalition ready to take quick action against Iraq.

[Steve Van Doorn]

These toons are great!

[The Wizard]

who cares

[OXENinFLA]

Kofi Annan, U.N. secretary-general
  
"It is indeed tragic that diplomacy has failed, but there are times when the use of force may be legitimate in the pursuit of peace." (March 24, 1999)

[Man of the Right]

They prefer to fight with the Iraqis, because they are concerned Anglo-American forces won't surrender.

[Man of the Right]

The French tried to surrender to Blair, but he insisted his wife take their surrender. He had work to do.

[BlueLancer]

"...you and all your silly English k-nippetts..."

K-niggets (Knights)

[Toirdhealbheach Beucail]

Very Sad that the country that produced Montcalm and Lafayette can only produce such as these. Charlemagne would look at these limp remains of his bloodline and spit.

[Man of the Right]

There is something to be said with having a gaggle of French women in front of our armored columns. If the wind is blowing toward Baghdad, the Iraqis will surrender and request the city be carpet-bombed with Chanel No. 5 to mask the stench.

[Copperhead61]

My patron saint is french, a sweet wonderful and loving person with courage and dignity. I feel bad for her that her country man have so shamed their nation. I hope she can talk the ALMIGHTY into giving them spines.

[guitfiddlist]

Good news. All they would do is weaken the line anyway.

Yes. Let'em hold the Maginot line on Iraqi Disarmament. And I hope the French are ready for the Sinead O'Connor look - after we discover and punish them for their traitorous complicity.

And this time, the Allies should shave ALL the little surrender monkeys bald, unlike just the female Lewinskis who'd slept with the Nazi's during WWII.

[TUX]

---

Dick Morris NY Post

February 4, 2003 -- CRITICS of President Bush say he has failed to rally our "traditional allies" - like France - to support his aggressive efforts to disarm Saddam Hussein. But since the Gulf War, in which France had token involvement, Paris has never been our ally where Iraq is concerned. Indeed, it has been more allied with Iraq than with us.
Throughout the '90s, France constantly pushed for the lifting of economic sanctions against Iraq. Bemoaning the fate of the Iraqi people, the French pushed to allow Saddam to sell oil on the global market (the so-called oil-for-food program). When America and Britain demanded tough controls on the funds from oil sales to be sure they did not go for arms, France objected that such controls would undermine Iraqi sovereignty.

Largely as a result of French pressure, the oil-for-food program was implemented, allowing Saddam to sell 500,000 barrels per day on the open market (about a sixth of his pre-war production).

But Saddam couldn't do much rearming with the oil money, because U.N. inspectors were looking over his shoulder. So in November 1997, he announced that he would bar Americans from the 77-member inspection team. The other inspectors withdrew in protest and solidarity with their American mates. The world was plunged into crisis. Once again, France took Saddam's side.

President Bill Clinton sent two aircraft carriers to the gulf and vowed that Saddam "must comply unconditionally with the will of the international community." French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine criticized Clinton for giving Saddam the impression that "there would never be a way out of the tunnel [of sanctions]," even if he got rid of all his weapons programs."

France demanded an end to all sanctions and called for unlimited oil sales by Iraq. Then suddenly Saddam seemed to back down in the face of Clinton's pressure and admitted the U.S. inspectors back in.

Had there been concessions to Saddam? Oh no, said Deputy National Security Adviser Sandy Berger: "There's no deal. There's no concessions."

But the French knew better. As Vedrine said, "The Americans bent a little." Pushed by France, the United States agreed to let Saddam increase his oil sales, ultimately letting sales grow to 2 million barrels per day. A concession to Iraq? No way, said Clinton's people: It was a concession to France; we were not giving in to Saddam.

Then, the next year, Saddam barred all U.N. inspectors. The final nail in the coffin of controls on Iraq came in 1999 when, again as a result of a French initiative, all limits on Iraqi oil sales were lifted. With no U.N. inspectors to inhibit him and $20 million a day in oil revenues, Saddam could build whatever weapons he wanted. Courtesy of France.

The only consistency in French policy toward Iraq since the Gulf War has been support for Saddam Hussein to weaken U.N. and U.S. measures against him. To hinge U.S. action on Iraq on French acceptance is like asking for the approval of the old Soviet Union before we moved against communism.

Why is France so pro-Saddam? It's the motive (wrongly) ascribed as behind U.S. enmity toward him: oil. French commercial deals with Middle East terrorist states dominate its foreign policy. It was a French company that risked U.S. sanctions by investing in Iranian oil production and it is French interests that benefit from the tie with Saddam.

Some ally!

Eventually, France will cave to the U.S. position: To fail to do so would be to consign the Security Council, France's only forum for the exercise of global power, to irrelevance. Bush's people said as much over the weekend, noting that a new U.N. resolution approving force was OK with them, but it's not high on their agenda.

France needs the United Nations to appear to be in charge, so that the French veto can appear to be important - and France can appear to still be a world power.

[He Rides A White Horse]

That's a relief.

[demosthenes the elder]

well, they just leap-frogged farther into the mire of irrelevancy

[Dqban22]

GOD BLESS FRANCE! SHE IS ALWAYS THERE WHEN SHE NEED US.

FROM LETTERS TO THE WSJ 2/4/03 BY NORMAN BEIN, M.D.

[hobbes1]

Hey, that's OK.Let France Stay home.

The Iraqi soldiers don't want to have to stand in line when surrendering to CNN camera crews.

[Republican Wildcat]

They should have no say in how Iraq is dealt with after it is liberated, then.

[SuziQ]

But Chirac will continue to insist that inspectors be given as much time as they judge necessary

I wonder if he'll be singing the same tune tomorrow after Colin Powell delivers his info to the UN.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

I doubt it, Blair probably briefed him on much that Powell was going to say.

Nothing, maybe up to an Islamic mushroom cloud over Paris would change the mind of a true pacifist. The mentality of the 60's has complete hold over Germany and France. They are doomed countries. Unwalled villages, ripe for the plunder.

[Wphile]

I'M SO SICK OF THE FRENCH!!

Time to move on and leave France behind.