January 21, 2003

France Says It May Veto Use of Force in Iraq
Foreign minister tells U.N. that intervention isn't yet warranted. His remarks highlight a growing divide between the U.S. and its allies.

In a broad challenge to the Bush administration's foreign policy, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Monday that France would not yet approve the use of force against Iraq and cautioned that U.N. handling of Baghdad would set a precedent for North Korea and the Middle East.

De Villepin spoke moments after U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell warned the United Nations Security Council that it "cannot shrink" from action against Iraq and said the U.N. must enforce its will if it intends to "remain relevant."
[...]
But De Villepin countered that there is no current justification for military action and hinted strongly that France would veto a resolution proposing an invasion of Iraq if peaceful alternatives remained.

"As long as you can make progress with the inspectors and get cooperation, there's no point in choosing the worst possible solution military intervention," he said.

The French remarks, echoed in similar statements by the Chinese and German foreign ministers, highlighted a widening divide between the United States and its allies over what the next steps should be. Of the 14 foreign ministers summoned here for a counter-terrorism meeting, Britain's Jack Straw was the only one to agree with the U.S. that "time is running out."

I strongly encourage you to read the whole story and I think you'll find that the only one making any sense at all was SoS Colin Powell (with a little help from Jack Straw). The other diplos were literally babbling inanities.
This development on the part of the French isn't really surprising, but yet I still find it shocking.
As does Steven Den Beste who has penned another excellent piece on the long-term implications of the possible treachery of France and Germany if indeed these erstwhile "allies" have helped arm Saddam: indeed, it is yet another Must Read by the Captain of the (anything but) Clueless and he says other noteworthy things about Jacksonian Democracy and the notion of Honor between nations, too.
Steven worries, as do I, that the increasing French recalcitrance to join with us on an Iraq attack can have no other explanation except that they have sold something awful to the Iraqis in the WMDs product line.
He and I both hope and I pray that it's not nukes, but from the strange, bordering-on-hostile behavior of the French, it doesn't look good.
The bottom line of this fallout between nations, as SDB sees it, is not only the death of an effective U.N., but the demise of NATO, as well. (Certainly the EU can't be far behind, as France and Germany are the EU's twin leaders.)
It took me awhile to blog about this, having read it this morning, but it was so depressing and scary that I put it off.
Sometimes, the truth isn't pretty.
This is one of those times.
Even if France and Germany change their minds and eventually go along with us in our War on Islamist Terror, I don't think Americans will forget their perfidy and fecklessness even up to this point and it will surely sour our future relations with them, at best, if not be a complete "poison pill."
Hopefully, new alliances with new countries like Poland, Pakistan and Australia will replace and surpass in mutual benefit these old post-WWII alliances we thought were as dear to those "allies" as they were to us.
Judases always betray with a kiss and no-one will kiss you more often than the French.
[Not to be unkind, but now that their mask is coming off, couldn't the CIA at least interrogate and sweat these Froggies to find out what they *did* sell to Saddam before our military has to find it in Iraq?]