Posted on 02/18/2003 4:20:27 AM PST by kattracks
WARSAW, Feb 18 (Reuters) - East European politicians accused French President Jacques Chirac on Tuesday of bully-boy tactics and rejected his demand to mute their strong backing for U.S. policy on Iraq.
"France has a right to its opinion and Poland has the right to decide what is good for it. France should respect that," Poland's deputy foreign minister Adam Rotfeld told public radio. "I would prefer if he expressed himself more politely."
"That's the way it seems," said Czech deputy foreign minister Alexandr Vondr when asked if Chirac was bullying the future EU countries.
Chirac on Monday lambasted east European states on track to join the European Union, saying they had been ill-behaved in backing Washington's determination to disarm Iraq, by force if necessary, and had missed "a great opportunity to shut up."
France's outburst will underline suspicions among the eight ex-communist states due to join the European Union next year that Paris expects them to show humble gratitude for being granted membership and wants them to accept French primacy in the bloc.
The clash will exacerbate tensions across Europe between France and Germany, which are leading opposition to U.S. policy, and states like Britain, Italy, Spain and the East Europeans who have joined to back Washington's tough stance on Baghdad.
One East European diplomat said Chirac had spoken in a tone that not even the Soviet Union would have used with its Warsaw Pact clients during its 40 year dominance of the region.
Former communist states have long been grateful to Washington for helping them throw off Moscow's dominance and for sponsoring their NATO entry drives. They had no qualms about openly backing the U.S. on Iraq, irritating Paris and Berlin.
MEMBERSHIP RISKS
Politicians said they found it particularly unsettling that France appeared to be threatening candidate states who have yet to receive entry invites and telling members-in-waiting that they were not partners but supplicants still outside the family.
Chirac also suggested enlargement might be delayed if even one of the referendums on EU entry due in candidate states in the coming months were to deliver a "No" vote.
His outburst will give ammunition to EU opponents in eastern Europe who argue they risk surrendering a liberty recently regained from Moscow to a bloc that will ignore their interests.
The candidates were irritated that current EU president Greece refused British and Spanish entreaties to invite them to Monday's EU emergency summit on Iraq, saying it showed they were not being taken seriously by some European states.
They were invited instead to a Tuesday briefing in Brussels, a substitute that many complained showed EU heavyweights France and Germany had not yet taken on board how Europe's centre of gravity will shift when its expands eastwards in 2004.
Bulgaria and Romania were told by Chirac they had put their chances of EU entry in 2007 at risk. Both have offered troops, bases and entry to their air space to the United States and Sofia has used its current Security Council seat to back Washington.
"I am surprised to find a connection being made between positions on Iraq and membership talks with the EU. Entry talks are held under strictly set rules announced in advance," complained European Integration Minister Meglena Kuneva.
Other states complained that Chirac was being unfair in criticising former Warsaw Pact states for a lack of solidarity with Europe when the European Union itself was deeply riven over Iraq.
"The EU candidates had no chance to have the same stance as the EU, because the Union itself had not agreed on a common position until yesterday," said Boris Gandel, Slovak Foreign Ministry spokesman. ((Reporting by Reuters bureau, writing by Sean Maguire,
I love the great one, and agree as a matter of principle. But the fact is that had it not been for the U.S. and its allies, the status quo would continue. Saddam would feel no pressure to comply with a toothless U.N.
Why people would go from the west to Iraq and pass out brochures saying "We're on your side" and believe they are actually helping them, is beyond me. They have to learn the lesson that freedom is not free. Freedom does not come from pacifism. It has a price.
ADL LIE: "Gun control" makes you safer, at the cost of "minor" inconvenience, e.g., permits, waiting periods, registration bans on, and confiscation of, some firearms and magazines.
JPFO FACT: The down-side to "gun control" is genocide, and mortal peril to those in the U.S. armed services, who have recently been deployed overseas thanks to "gun control".
In this century there have been at least seven major genocides in which at least 56,000,000 persons, including millions of children, have been murdered by officials of governments "gone bad". The seven cases are:
1915 - 1917 Ottoman Turkey, 1.5 million Armenians murdered;
1929 - 1953 Soviet Union, 20 million people that opposed Stalin were murdered;
1933 - 1945 Nazi occupied Europe, 13 million Jews Gypsies and others that opposed Hitler were murdered;
1948 - 1952 China, 20 million anti communists;
1960 - 1981 Guatemala, 100,000 Mayan Indians Murdered;
1971 - 1979 Uganda, 300,000 Christians and Political Rivals of Idi Amin murdered;
1975 - 1979 Cambodia, 1 million educated persons murdered.TOTAL VICTIMS: 56 MILLION!
In every case, there was on the books before the murdering began, at least one "gun control" law, sometimes the last of a series. In five of the seven cases, "gun control" was first enacted by a regime that came before the genocide regime -- sometimes decades before.
The United States does, since the plan is to get Saddam and his regime out of Iraq and free the Iraqi people. Iraqi dissidents living in free countries already have plans for Western style representative government in Iraq.
THEN, we can deal with Saddam at a later date, while enjoying an intelligence WINDFALL from his post-exile words, actions and movement...until such time as he is quitely dealt with. At least that's the way I always saw the plan. Russia wouldn't be a bad spot for Saddam right now. Putin gets his continued oil contracts, and gets Saddam, who's no doubt behind at least some Chechan terrorism. Better there than an Arab country.
Czech crystal! Absolutely magnificent glassware, jewelry (garnets set in gold), and BEER. The favorite Czech beer here is called "Rebel." The term "pilsner" is derived from its city of origin, Plsen, in Bohemia.
Hmmmm. I'm not so sure. If he has decided that is better for France not to expand the EU, and he wanted to strengthen the anti-EU movement in Eastern Europe, then maybe this insult was successful and quite intentional.
With the French it is always important to remember that they are utterly machievelian. They have no honor, no scruples and no shame. They are perfectly willing to loose "face," to be embarassed, or to be perceived as fools or as cowards (or to keep millions of Iraqis under murderous, dictatorial oppression) so long as it increases or preserves their real power.
Don't forget Slovakia. When the Wall came down, Czechoslovakia agreed to a friendly separation into the original states. It is two countries now, Czech Republic (Bohemia, Moravia) to the north, and Slovakia to the south.
Mr. ChIraq (Your Irrelevancy):
Your posturing means nothing - you have blood on your hands. You are beneath contempt. George W. Bush is an honorable man. You are a treacherous Vichy cheese eating surrender monkey. We will not forget your collaboration with evil.
Sincerely yours,
[real name] , American
P.S. Don't bother to reply - nothing French will ever cross my doorstep again
Add that the Armenian were Christians and add to that tens of thousands of Greek and Assyrian Christians who were also murdered.
They get it!
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