Posted on 04/29/2003 7:09:15 AM PDT by bedolido
WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger reacted to reports Monday of French collaboration with the regime of Saddam Hussein saying, "France is not our friend." Documents emerged over the weekend indicating that the French foreign ministry informed their Iraqi counterparts about private communications with U.S. government officials on an ongoing basis.
Eagleburger was not surprised by the revelations, suggesting that America needs to "close off most of the avenues of relationships" and to treat France "as a third level and not allies." The former official in the previous Bush administration said, "I don't see how our relationship with France can ever return to a close relationship of allies."
Commenting on a proposed deal with former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, Eagleburger referred to Aziz as "a minor devil." Eagleburger suggested that Aziz was not worthy of much consideration unless he was able to provide information about weapons of mass destruction or the status of Saddam Hussein.
Eagleburger also warned that building a democracy in Iraq "will be difficult" and take "a long time." He originally opposed the idea of pre-emption, but conceded that the Iraqi people are far better off without the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Further evidence of French complicity is expected to emerge as more of the "most wanted" regime officials are captured and documents are found. Such revelations will undoubtedly exacerbate the strained Franco-American relations. Already Secretary of State Colin Powell indicated that there would be "consequences" for France as a result of their opposition.
Copyright © 2003 Talon News -- All rights reserved.
Doesn't take Sherlock to solve that one, but it looks like m ost of the newsies don't get it yet.
Someone rather famously said that nations have interests, not friendships. The French do cooperate with us when it is in their interest to do so. French soldiers and NGOs are working with Americans in the Balkans and in Afghanistan.
Of course, most of the NGOs are shot through with agents for SDECE which are collecting against our people, in between any humanitarian work they do. But I have seen Doctors Without Borders, AMI, and Solidarite do good work in bad places.
The root of the problem seems to be Gallic pride. The French still don't realise that they haven't been a world power since the second time a certain short Corsican was exiled. This disconnect between their perception and actual reality makes them rather testy.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Huh?
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