Rumsfeld to France and Germany:
Posted on 02/10/2003 3:14:35 AM PST by kattracks
BERLIN (AP) -- Germany joined France and Belgium on Monday in blocking the start of NATO military planning to protect Turkey against the threat of an Iraqi missile attack.
"We are joining Belgium and France," Foreign Ministry spokesman Walter Lindner said.
The announcement came after France and Belgium blocked the move at the NATO alliance in Brussels, Belgium.
NATO officials said France formally blocked the move an hour before NATO procedures would have automatically started the military planning at 4 a.m. EST.
At a weekend defense conference in Munich, Defense Minister Peter Struck had still hinted that Germany might be willing to lift its objections.
The fine thespian Jean Claude Van Damme is also from Belgium. We should bomb them for that alone.
A. The U.N. sent inspectors into Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction - the same WMD Saddamn said he did not have.
B. The United States and Britian agreed that Saddamn had not complied with U.N. resolution 1440, had WMD, then attacked and removed Saddamn from power to prevent him from using (or allow some other terrorist) them.
C. Saddamn, while insisting (and convincing France, Germany, and Belgium) he had no WMD, at the same time threatened the U.S. and Britian to destroy them WITH WMD if they attacked Iraq.
D. After the U.S. and Britian attacked Iraq, vast stores of WMD, chemical, biological, and yes - even some nuclear - were uncovered by the prevailing U.S. and British forces.
E. Saddamn and his two sons were tried before a U.N. tribunal and unaimously found to be enemies of minkind perptetuating mass murders on their own people of magnitudes and ferociouceness not seen since Adolph Hitler's actions created the word "genocide." They were summarily executed by firing squads for their crimes against humanity.
F. The Democrats in the United States had their worst election returns in the 2004 elections in that party's history.
G. George W. Bush was elected president for a second term in 2004 by the largest landslide in U.S. history.
H. Ditto for Tony Blair.
I. Hillary Clinton was defeated for his (grin) bid for reelection in New York State.
Rumsfeld to France and Germany:
I don't think he's too concerned about his political future. He's already reached the highest office in Britain, so now he's just concerned about the future of Britain and the civilized world. Tony's looking 100 years ahead, not 100 days ahead. What will historians say about Tony Blair & George W. Bush in the year 2103? I believe he wants them to say that Bush & Blair stopped terrorism with WMD before it got started and saved civilization. Tony & George are heros.
No, we don't want to create a "Fourth Reich." Such a thing could only rise out of Europe, with its history.
That said, I can understand why Europeans are a bit leery of us right now. You see us as essentially Europeans, but with a massive heap of bravado. But we are not. Not European, that is. We may look like Europeans, but we have a fundamentally different way of thinking, and we promote freedom for freedom's sake.
Now, what you have to understand is this: this IS about oil. For France. That's why France is standing in the way. They have huge oil contracts, and they do lots of other business with Saddam's regime, and they don't want the status quo disrupted.
For the U.S., this is about creating democracy and peace in the Middle East once and for all. We couldn't care less about Saddam's oil; we've got plenty of other sources for oil. This is also, frankly, about Israel, and our desire to bring peace to they that have suffered so greatly for so long. Europeans are not especially fond of Israel, so we understand why they are so recitent about this.
I certainly have hesitation about invading a sovereign country preemptively. However, I do not share the Europeans' fundamental distaste for bringing liberty to the Iraqi people, and other people in the region. They've suffered murder, torture and worse long enough at the hands of despots.
I repeat: Germany has not used its veto!!
The German government announced that it supports the Belgian and French position, but has not voted against defending Turkey. Still, the government keeps its promise to send Patriot air defense missiles to Turkey at the end of next week.
Not by America. Religon itself is just a belief system, and is neither good nor bad by definition. It's the interpretation of a religon and the way it is actually practiced that matters. Bush adds a few references to God in his speechs, but that is a long-standing, well-established American tradition. I'm surpised that you know so little about our country and yet are willing to criticize us so strongly. Right on our coin currency, on every single coin, are the words "In God We Trust." One of the most popular songs sung by Americans for the past 50 years is "God Bless America". We've been singing it at sporting events, in Church, and at home for many years now. This is a Christian nation founded on faith in God and the President shares this faith. To say that he sounds like a brutal, cowardly killer like Mullah Omar is insulting to the President and to our country.
Just for the record, I believe the biggest reason why France & Germany are so opposed to the use of force in Iraq is because they have a massive involvement in illegal weapons programs in Iraq. There's going to be a major scandal when we go into Iraq and uncover all the weapons programs. We will find that France & Germany have been undermining the security of their NATO allies and the entire civilized world for 12 years. Chirac and Schroeder will fall into political disgrace and oblivion (unless, of course, their countries are now so depraved that nobody in France & Germany cares about their "allies".)
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