Be vewwy, vewwy quiet. I'm hunting Fwoggies. Heh heh heh heh heh!
Posted on 03/13/2003 12:08:26 PM PST by knighthawk
Cross-channel relations at new low while US turns on Russia
The British government declared open season on France yesterday in retaliation for its threat to veto the proposed UN resolution on Iraq.
Tony Blair, after weeks of restraint, openly criticised France in the Commons, as did other ministers. Officials have been told they have been freed by "the highest authority" to lay into the French.
Relations have not been so bad since De Gaulle vetoed Britain's entry to the common market in 1963.
In Moscow, the US ambassador threatened the withdrawal of US support to Russia in several important areas. Russia has threatened to abstain or join France in using its security council veto.
At prime minister's question time, Mr Blair, whose aides have repeatedly ducked invitations to condemn French conduct, allowed himself a show of irritation with the French president, Jacques Chirac, when he said he was working "flat out" to achieve a UN solution "on the basis of a compromise".
That goal was "complicated when one nation is saying that, whatever the circumstances, it will veto a second resolution" - a clear dig at Mr Chirac's TV appearance on Monday night.
The British government view is that France signed up to the previous Iraq resolution, 1441, last year, but every French action since has undercut attempts to put pressure on Iraq.
Last night, Mr Blair was dining privately with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, but Whitehall sees Germany's political plight and its virtual pacificism since 1945 in a very different light.
There was no official French reaction to Mr Blair's comments, but the size of his difficulties did not escape the attention of the French press.
"Bush's war destabilises Tony Blair" was Le Monde's front page headline, above a cartoon of a heavily armed GI telling a naked and vulnerable-looking Mr Blair: "You're a nice guy, Tony, but maybe I'll do the job without you."
In Paris's view the real threat to the UN is not its veto but Washington and London's insistence on a dangerous war they have failed to convince the world and the security council is necessary or justified.
A French foreign ministry spokesman said its position was "perfectly clear and consistent, and has been since the very start of all this.
"First, the inspectors are progressing and must be allowed to do their job. Second, it must be they, and no one else, who decides when they have finished or been prevented from doing so.
"That means, third, we cannot accept an ultimatum that would cut short their work and give the green light to war."
The US ambassador to Paris, Howard Leach, has given no newspaper interviews and has made only one brief television appearance, in English, in which he contented himself with saying that Washington would consider a French veto a "very unfriendly gesture".
Analysts say it is difficult to see what direct economic sanctions the US could impose on France: consumer boycotts of wine, cheese and the like would have a limited effect, and official trade sanctions are unlikely because they would have to embrace the EU and thus risk hurting such "loyal" partners as Britain and Spain.
US corporate investment in France might tail off, as might American tourist dollars, and defence and aerospace companies dealing directly with the Bush administration would clearly suffer. But Washington cannot wave the carrot of development aid, debt write-offs or investment in infrastructure and industry, as it can in Russia.
The US ambassador in Moscow, Alexander Vershbow, urged Russia to "heavily weigh all the consequences" of using its veto. He said it could be cut out of rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure and oilfields.
US investment in energy and joint work on security, terrorism, the international space station, and building an anti-ballistic missile system would be at risk, and he pointed out that Russia's relationship with Nato was only just beginning.
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Be vewwy, vewwy quiet. I'm hunting Fwoggies. Heh heh heh heh heh!
However, it could easily have gone differently. But for a few decisions made on both sides, the alliance could have been Britain/Germany, with France/Italy/Spain on the other side.
That it has now broken up is simply a return to the world as it existed prior to 1890, albeit with a new power leading the Anglosphere.
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