Straw takes war to the French in vitriolic United Nations tirade

The Daily Telegraph ^ | March 8, 2003 | Marcus Warren and Robin Gedye

[MadIvan]

So often the grey man of British diplomacy, Jack Straw last night let rip at the French foreign minister in front of a shocked UN Security Council, calling on the international community to enforce the disarmament of Iraq "on its own terms".

In what one admiring American delegate referred to as a "diplomatic call to arms", Mr Straw spelled out in the clearest terms that time had effectively run out for Saddam Hussein, his lies and his prevarications.

He launched an impassioned tirade at Dominique de Villepin and France's policy on Iraq in an outburst that marked a new extreme of rhetoric in the row over how to deal with Saddam.

Staring M de Villepin in the eye and packing his speech with liberal references to "Dominique", Mr Straw directed what turned into an ad hominem assault on his French counterpart.

Mr Straw heaped scorn on the logic of countries - especially France - that are set on giving Iraq more time. "Dominique, you said that the choice before us was disarmament by peace or disarmament by war," Mr Straw said. "Dominique, that's a false choice."

M de Villepin, by far the most charismatic spokesman for the anti-war camp, had no option but to sit through his reprimand. But the expression on his face - and its colour - betrayed rage at his treatment.

The ambush - the French, like everyone else in the room, had no idea what was coming - was the most heated public spat between a senior British and French official in recent times.

It was all the more unexpected because, as Foreign Secretary, Mr Straw has earned a reputation as one of the most colourless, if solid, performers on the world stage.

Whether by accident or design, Mr Straw deployed two English borrowings from French to tear into his opponent. He attacked the concept of "automaticité", the notion that voting for UN resolutions against Iraq automatically triggered war, which was a "canard", he thundered.

Giving the UN chamber a taste of the invective and emotion normally confined to the Dispatch Box in the Commons, Mr Straw also laid into M de Villepin over his underplaying of the role of US and British troops in the Gulf.

The presence of "young men willing to put their lives on the line for this body, the UN", was the key factor in compelling Saddam to make concessions, not diplomacy, he said.

The passion of his argument over the impact of the military threat as opposed to diplomatic pressure appeared to put Mr Straw off his stride. "Dominique, with respect to you, my good friend, I think it's the other way round. I really do.

"The strong outside pressure is, and let's be blunt about this, the presence of over 200,000 US and UK young men and young women willing to put their lives on the line for the sake of this body the United Nations."

Mr Straw continued: "There is only one possible, sensible conclusion that we can draw. We have to increase the pressure on Saddam Hussein. We have to put this man to the test.

"The Iraqis have the answer already - it may take time to fabricate further falsehoods, but the truth takes only seconds to tell."

He said Britain, the United States and Spain were tabling an amended resolution giving Saddam 10 more days to disarm peacefully and warned fellow foreign ministers on the council that if Iraq did not comply, action must follow.

"The council must send Iraq a clear message that we will resolve this crisis on the United Nations' terms, the terms which the council established a month ago when we unanimously adopted resolution 1441."

Gesticulating to emphasise his points and straining to keep the reading of his notes to a minimum while making eye contact with those seated around him, Mr Straw demanded that the council must not retreat from its demands set out in 1441.

"What we need is an irreversible and strategic decision by Iraq to disarm, to yield to the inspectors all of its weapons of mass destruction and all relevant information which it could and should have provided at any time in the last 12 years."

The international community had a duty to remember that the only reason that Saddam had changed in recent weeks and furnished inspectors with more information "was for one thing only - the pressure on the regime. Strong outside pressure."

The only way to achieve disarmament "is by backing our diplomacy with a credible display of force".

"We have to increase the pressure and put this man to the test," he said of Saddam in a pointed attempt to heighten the impact of his words by demonstrating that Britain felt it was dealing with a recognisable figure rather than a faceless regime.

"He can act with astonishing speed when he wants", by handing over thousands of pages of documents within days when the pressure builds on him.

[BCrago66]

In the late 90's, when I was momentarily rich refore the Internet bubble burst, I really thought it was, to use the phrase from that article, "The End of History." I thought that the travel and communications revolusions meant that it didn't matter so much what the past history of a country was, because now the individuals within those countries were empowered to choose to impliment the best idea: Liberal Democracy.

Boy was I wrong. Today, we see nations reverting to form. Britain and USA: Freeing oppessed people. German and France: Dictator-loving and dictator-appeasement. The pull of national culture proved just too damn strong.

Oh well. I'm just happy that we forces of good will win out.

[Torie]

Average Americans don't hate the UN. You are projecting. Average Americans are more sensible than that. You work with the UN when you can, you appreciate have some international rules is imperative to have a global system that is less brutish than otherwise, but do what you must when it has lost its way, or a veto from a recalitrant deflects it from its mission. A calm patience backed up by ultimate resolve is the ticket when it comes to international affairs. The hot headed are ill suited to be players in this arena.

[TheSpottedOwl]

I saw it!!!! Jack Straw rocks! Intelligent, fact based asskicking at its finest. Did you see him grab a handful of Hans Blix' paperwork and dismiss it?

Hey MadIvan, though I may be a little pissed off about that problem with Irish occupation, there is no country I'd rather be allies with. You know it would be nice if Mr. Straw saw this thread, so he knows that he did damn good today :)

[Spruce]

I was trying to pay close attention to the background after Mr. Straw's speech. There was a document handed to all members at the end of the speech. It caused quite a stir! Hmmm...

[RummyChick]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,910080,00.html

"Mr Straw's performance made him a hero in the American delegation"

[Torie]

Straw said what needed to be said. I particularly salute him that this whole charade only has a facsimile of verisimilitude because the US and UK are doing the heavy lifting of offering up the iron fist, and that one cannot hold a clenched first indefinitely. The body is not wired that way.

[paul51]

This is Straw's finest hour

Agreed. He was outstanding

[lizbet]

Bill Clinton can't be Secretary-0General of the U.N. unless they change the rules and allow him to become that. I hope that the U.N. would show some backbone and not change the rules. But who knows?

[Dog Gone]

Okay, I've been pretty hard on Straw for the last couple of years, but that was an impressive and impassioned speech. Kudos!

[RummyChick]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12709416&method=full&siteid=50143

BLAIR: I'LL DEFY TRIPLE UN WAR VETO

[paul51]

Anyone have an email address for Mr. Straw? We should let him know we support him.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Average Americans don't hate the UN. You are projecting. Average Americans are more sensible than that.

I learned to hate the UN at my mother's knee. I learned to hate and distrust France after my father told me about his french vacation courtesy of WWII.

SCREW THE UN!!!!

[lewislynn]

I just finished watching the re-run on our C-span. Absolutely beautiful! Straw slapped them upside their heads and made an absolute fool of the stuffed shirt frog.

Speaking of beautiful, thanks again for all the information you've been posting here for us including the one about that new air line.

[mickie]

Breaking news on Greta's show.
Bill Gertz said the latest news is that France as recently as Jan.'3, has sold parts for Sadaams fighter jets (and I believe he said nuclear weapons) thru a third party.
Anyone else see the show?

[Constitution Day]

Straw's lecture to the petulant children at the UNSC - particularly the unctuous Villepin - was masterful and full of righteous anger.

MadIvan, if you see a transcript of his remarks, I'd appreciate a ping.

CD

[section9]

Here, here!

But let's be somewhat realistic. While we want to have some structures for conflict resolution, international copyright law, and whatnot, there is the sad fact that the United Nations has become a gasbag shop on all too many occaisions.

Bush and Blair are pushing the system to the limit. I strongly suspect that this was the smart thing to do. Going outside of the UN framework would have made it problematic for George Bush to secure his Congressional Authorization last year.

Now that we're in the framework, we can wave 1441 in their faces and dare them to veto. I suspected that Powell and Straw wanted to go for an early vote. They're smart guys, especially Straw. When people have to actually sit down and vote, they tend to back the strongest horse.

Even now there is second thoughts among the political elites in France, Germany, and even Russia. They know Bush is going ahead. The question is, how do they break in gracefully so they can have a seat at the peace conference.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[Cathryn Crawford]

http://www.britainusa.com/iraq/xq/asp/SarticleType.1/Article_ID.3340/qx/articles_show.htm

There's the transcript if you still want it...

[Slip18]

Jack Straw did well.

Bump to you, Ivan.

[Mo1]

The stakes were raised further by a French proposal that the leaders of the security council nations should go to New York to decide between war and peace, in a vote expected next week.

I read this wrong the first time I read it

The Leaders?? .. What is France up to now?

[Spruce]

If that is true, that makes this a whole different ballgame.