Regards, Ivan
Posted on 04/16/2003 5:14:11 PM PDT by MadIvan
As France feels the bruises of its diplomatic fight with America over Iraq, and worries that its revenge will be long and bitter, it is finally questioning the leadership of President Jacques Chirac.
Still dazed by the speed of Iraq's capitulation, M Chirac is groping for a sequel to his defiance of the march to war. He has dispatched his foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, all over the Middle East to seek out a French role in whatever comes next. On Tuesday, he called President George W Bush for a frosty, 20-minute conversation supposed to clear the air.
M Chirac's popularity remains high at 70 per cent in the latest poll, but senior members of his own party are breaking ranks. Most prominent are the interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, who has realistic hopes of succeeding M Chirac in 2007, and the defence minister, Michele Alliot-Marie.
Both believe that France has gone too far in antagonising Washington and neither wants his political future tarnished by association with a failed policy of anti-Americanism. They command broad support on the French Right and share a mistrust for the high-handed and ambitious M de Villepin.
On the Left, M Chirac's leading critic has been the Socialist ex-health minister, Bernard Kouchner. As a former head of the United Nations mission in Kosovo and a co-founder of the Nobel prize-winning aid organisation Médécins Sans Frontières, M Kouchner is widely respected in France, especially when he talks about human rights and the minutiae of post-war nation building.
He believes that M Chirac disastrously misunderstood America's determination over Iraq and the change in US attitudes to the Middle East following September 11.
He accuses France of trivial anti-Americanism and of "breaking the game" on Iraq when it vowed to veto any UN resolution authorising military action. "Afterwards it was impossible. France pushed America into the war," he said yesterday.
M Kouchner finds it sad to watch the liberation of Iraqis and Kurds by US and British, but not French, troops. "It was a heartbreaking moment for me to watch the Kurds being freed. France, the so-called country of human rights, was not there," he said. Now, as Iraq rebuilds, he fears that France has blown its chance of an important role. He says that in the lead-up to war the French political class became so caught up in the thrill of baiting America that it ignored the evils of Saddam Hussein's regime.
"It was our anti-American reflex," he said. The Right gorged on M Chirac's soaring popularity ratings while the Left was happier attacking Mr Bush than Saddam's human rights record.
"What I found most worrying was when 32 per cent of the French in the middle of the war said they wanted Saddam to win," said M Kouchner. "Nobody, not the press nor the politicians, was telling people about the reality of Iraq. The Left failed in its duty because it was easier to attack Mr Bush. France gave the impression it was supporting Saddam." Tony Blair, he said, did a far better job than France of keeping the diplomacy going and trying at least not to turn the Security Council into a "boxing ring".
M Chirac's main concern now is avoiding humiliation. Having opposed the war and the American- and British-led reconstruction of Iraq he cannot now be seen begging for a role in post-war Iraq. But nor can he afford not to grovel to America.
Germany and Russia, of his pre-war allies, have already abandoned him. He receives daily reports of American plans to punish France, and Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, has written to Mr Bush arguing for reduced co-operation between French and US armed forces.
Regards, Ivan
And I thought it was the country most notable for its invention and use of the guillotine.
Too late, Chirac is already seen that way. So pathetic, look at the whining Frenchy-boy.
I thought that was the left's duty.
Pity. 
| the French political class became so caught up in the thrill of baiting America that it ignored the evils of Saddam Hussein's regime.
|
They are right. It will. I have never been a fan of the French but now I actively despise them and I will never, ever knowingly buy a French product for the rest of my life. I am only 28--hopefully that's a long life free of French products.
You got that right, froggie. Please Mr Bush - no role for France, unless Chirac goes on American TV -- grovels and cries and begs us to forgive them. Then they can clean our latrines.
"No" said the sadist.
I'd let him do it, then cross him. Absolutely no quarter for the French.
Therein lies the most truthful sentence of the article. Fine article too. But the honesty of admitting their anti-Americanism as reflexive is mildly surprising.
Prairie
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Bingo! I hope M. de Villepin enjoyed his opportunity to prance on the world stage; he will be paying dearly for it for a very long time.