Woo-Hoo!!!
Posted on 03/07/2003 5:45:49 PM PST by 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.
Woo-Hoo!!!
DU is a fitting place for zefrog, except I'd think that'd he'd find DU to be too conservative.
Talk about being in the wrong place, froggie.
Why, of course, jewish french groups. We're talking about problems in France. Why would you prefer communiques from non-french groups on this issue?
Yeah, I can see that.
I presume if you lived in the US you would be a D emocrat
And a ridiculous one at that. Never did explain why a rocket would need to have fuselages with mirror-smooth surfaces on the INSIDE and tolerance requirements in excess of any manufactured rocket- if it was merely trying to "improve the performance" on a "reverse engineered" prototype of what is a supposed to be a cheap, disposable weapons system. Nor did he explain why they would want to order so many tubes if the design was still in its infancy and not ready for the manufacturing stage.
And what's that we hear about the drone Blix forgot to mention while he was kissing Chirac's arse yesterday?
Gee, wonder why he didn't mention any of the interesting stuff on camera, but saw fit instead to bury it inside his report? HE might not be too smart but it looks like he's learning a lot from the Iraqis!
Despite your pretentions otherwise, France is not the center of the universe.
Don't know. Maybe. But it has nothing to do with the aforementioned documents anyway. In case you have not noticed, El Baradei said they were fake, and neither Straw or Powell protested... Draw your conclusions.
You're out of line. Far out of line. Either learn some manners or the mods may notice.
Ivan
Gee, what game are you playing at? We were talking about INCIDENTS IN FRANCE!
My parents visited France several years ago and had a wonderful time. The trick, they say, is to act as though you have all the money in the world, and treat the natives like the cowardly buckets of filth that they are. Show them no respect and they will reward you by kissing your butt.
Ah, show them the same arrogrance and distain they show us--along with the showing of a liberal dose of US currency--and they'll kiss butt. I'll let her know, but I doubt if she'd spend a dime on or in France these days.
Anybody know how to make a "sideways" document in large print using a full sheet of paper, for taping inside rear car windows?
When we defend America it may bust the UN, and the libs are going to scream bloody murder. We need an instant bumper sticker campaign to get the above message out as an immediate counter to their howls of outrage over our acting outside the UN.
This article, according to Babelfish and my understanding of French just indicates welcoming a government statement against Anti-Semitism. What is your problem that you confuse words with actions?
http://www.crif.org/index02.php?id=795&type=communique&menu=2
This article merely talks about an "action plan". More words.
http://www.crif.org/index02.php?id=520&type=communique&menu=2
Finally, a new law is enacted, according to this, in December. Didn't stop the French police from instantly accusing the Rabbi, did it?
Ivan
???????? Who is better qualified to assert antisemitism in France? French Jews, that is, Jews living in France, or non-french jews, living outside of France? Really, I don't understand anything of what you're trying to do.
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