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.

[Green]

It's on Cspan1 right now.

[Mo1]

Agreed. I watched Straw this morning and it was masterful. I half expected Powell to jump up and high-five him.

LOL .. That would have been great

I was hoot'n and hollering while Straw gave his speech

God Bless this man and THANK YOU MR. STRAW!!!

[tet68]

He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,
This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,
Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim
Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.

K. Henry. What treasure, uncle?

Exe. Tennis-balls, my liege........

King Henry. .....But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state,
Be like a king and show my sail of greatness
When I do rouse me in my throne of France:
For that I have laid by my majesty
And plodded like a man for working-days,
But I will rise there with so full a glory
That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his
Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; and his soul
Shall stand sore-charged for the wasteful ven-
geance
That shall fly with them: for many a thousand
widows
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear hus-
bands;
Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles
down;
And some are yet ungotten and unborn
That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's
scorn.


It is long past time the French were told off.

[ChadGore]

Inaction = Appeasement

[BCrago66]

Colin Powell is up now. For those who read Atlas Shugged, he reminds me a little of Eddie Willers, who was too good-hearted to fully comprehend the evil he was up against.

[Calpernia]

Thank goodness. So he doesn't need the approval of the Labor Party (I think that is the correct name) then?

[He Rides A White Horse]

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.

It was great Mad Ivan, not the ad hominem being suggested here.

[easonc52]

and the transcript http://www.ukun.org/xq/asp/SarticleType.17/Article_ID.579/qx/articles_show.htm

[AnAmericanMother]

Holy catfish!

I am amazed . . . but I shouldn't be.

Beware of getting the British REALLY riled up - as my dear old dad always said (an accidental alumnus of the 79th Cameron Highlanders, N. Africa & Italy.)

[Miss Marple]

Thanks for the reminder. I am going to watch it again so that I can see de Villepin's face. HA!

[CathyRyan]

Powell is on now and Jack Straw is still to come

[BCrago66]

Also the German thug's face got screwed up like a lemon during Straw's presentation. What a pair: Replaying their historic roles as dictator-lover and dictator-appeaser.

[Cicero]

Amazing. Jack Straw was not just colorless, he was way out in left field. Never in a million years would I have expected him to back Tony Blair like this.

Blair doesn't surprise me so much. He is a clintonoid socialist on cultural matters, but he understands the importance of the Special Relationship, and that in turn seems to have raised to to a higher level.

But a performance like this from Jack Straw is simply amazing. Part of it may be political loyalty to his boss, part of it patriotism, part of it ancient British hatred of the French. But I think maybe the most basic cause is that THE FRENCH HAVE BADLY MISCALCULATED AND HAVE GONE TOO FAR ONCE TOO OFTEN. They have gotten used to kicking their friends at every opportunity without it being much noticed. But when you kick somebody after they have gone through the experience of 9/11, they will notice it. And they will be deeply and seriously outraged by it.

[swampfox98]

I hope it is true that Clinton can't qualify. It is the UN, and the rogues of the world are running it while America is paying the bills. Sounds like something right down Clinton's alley.

[Cultural Jihad]

"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."

The whole world is watching, Mr. Chirac.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Is that the same as cspan.org? I'm listening to some thing that has Hans Blix speaking. I don't see anything from Jack Straw, so far.

[Mark Felton]

This was my favorite part of his speech. As he spoke the last sentence of this excerpt Jack Straw stared intensely at de Villepin and threw his arms up in the air in gesture of SURRENDER! LOL

What has happened, in Dr Blix’s carefully chosen words “the strong outside pressure”, let us be blunt about this, is the presence of over 200,000 United States and United Kingdom young men and young women willing to put their lives on the line for the sake of this body, the United Nations. Dominique also said the choice before us was disarmament by peace or disarmament by war. Dominique that is a false choice. I wish that it was that easy because we wouldn’t be having to have this discussion, we could all put up our hands up for disarmament by peace and all go home.

[PhiKapMom]

I just checked the website of the counterpart office in UK to our State Department and his remarks have not been posted yet. The remarks he made on the 5th of March are up so I would expect them to post his remarks from today overnight!

[geedee]

America and Britian - or Britain and America, if you wish, will liberate an oppressed people. Again. Because that is who we are, and that is what we do.

Well said. Well said.

[Robert_Paulson2]

It is slow to dawning on folks of good will... but if France continues its obstinance, we will be at war with them in a MATERIAL way, by year's end, if not before.

The French HATE english dominance of the planet... ALL the coolest countries speak English, not their liason-obsessed faison l'merde doublespeak. Better warn our family members in UK... the french may fart in their direction, with one of their non-seaworthy subs, sooner rather than later.

why don't YOU guys simply do us a favor and use an SAS team to sabotage both screws on that ONE aircraft carrier they have... youknow the one with the short deck?

I listened to straw TWICE today... GREAT asskicking of the parlevou crowd, I must say. He did a great job, did he not?

be well.