Posted on 09/13/2001 6:19:54 PM PDT by dighton
POLITICAL leaders in France and Germany urged President Bush yesterday to avoid a belligerent response, as fears grew in Europe of the consequences of swift and ruthless military reaction to the terrorist attacks.
Lionel Jospin, the French Prime Minister, said the Americans should be "reasonable" in their response. Alain Richard, his defence minister, said the attacks were "not acts of war".
The comments, echoed by senior German ministers if not by the Chancellor, Gerhard Schroder, contradicted statements by President Bush and his Secretary of State Colin Powell.
M Jospin said: "We must vigorously condemn and combat terrorism. But we must not allow ourselves to be led into considerations of a conflict between the western world and the Islamic world, where we have many friends and partners."
The remarks from the Socialist prime minister were aimed at reassuring both the France's political Left and its Muslim population, which numbers six million. But they will be seen as further evidence of disagreements between France and America on big foreign policy issues.
The comments by M Richard will also undermine American confidence in France's commitment to joint reprisals as outlined by Nato members on Wednesday. He said: "I think that this was a terrorist attack of particular gravity.
"American democracy is clearly endangered by such action, but in my opinion a war is something else entirely." France disagrees with US policy on missile defence, the bombing of Iraq and what it sees as American cultural imperialism.
Rudolf Scharping, the German defence minister, also cautioned against launching swift military strikes. "I hope we all remain calm and do not now speak of a state of alarm. We do not face a war.
"We face the question of what is an appropriate response," he told German television. "Not in the sense of revenge and retribution, but in order to be able to fight and break international terror."
France's maverick health minister, Bernard Kouchner, went as far yesterday as to put the attacks down to a "series of errors" by America. "America's made a real mistake in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which was to train the Taliban," M Kouchner said.
"To think now that there is some kind of consensus of 'honourable' nations against the 'bad' terrorists, is simply not true."
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2001.</font color>
Nah. They'd be whimpering like little girls and begging someone to please do something!
You're off your gob. You'd be lucky to find ten thousand real Catholics in all of France, the secular-humanist, anti-clerical capital of Europe.
What is the primary responsibility of the French Defence Minister? He makes and raises the white flag for the Eiffel Tower.
How come French women are so easy? They have to surrender faster than their army.
Hey France, give us some advice AFTER you win a war!
Pray for GW and NY!
I won't count on that "few days" part. Never seen you so far over the line.
I'm going to withhold judgement on your words until I've seen you posting while sober. Congrats on being the first person ever to call me an Israeli Maggot. (What would have to happen before your patriotism overcame your antisemitism?)
(Cue Meat Loaf album)
I will do anything for love, but if I'm an Israeli maggot Bert's the first one to tell me.
And I'm still not betting on "a few days."
The world Economies will collapse and most of you will be out of a job in cities where cannbalism will provide the only food supply.
A+Bert, you're being outlandish and ridiculous again. This time, however, you're right.
The terrorists can use black market tactical nukes, anthrax, and EMP bombs to bring our economy to its knees. The people who destroyed the WTC demonstrate strategic thinking and it's likely this was only Phase I. They have a Phase II in store for us. They're waiting for us to trip the wire by launching atrocities of our own against the innocents of the Arab world. Then they'll claim moral justification for whatever they do in response.
The wise course is to make sure our response is measured and targeted. We get the people who did this, and we make sure we make the world understand what monsters they are.
If we just go around trying to kick butt, we'll get our owned butts kicked big time.
We think we're invulnerable. We think we're Zeus up in the clouds, throwing down thunderbolts upon the helpless mortals. We're more like a bare-footed men stamping on a scorpion.
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