March 14, 2003

Furious Britain Denounces France for Blocking Iraq Deal

The dispute between Britain and France over disarming Saddam Hussein exploded into open hostility Thursday, as furious British officials accused the French of all but ensuring there will be a war.

In shockingly blunt language for allies, British officials assailed their French counterparts for blocking efforts to set a deadline for Iraq to disarm. Britain accused France of rejecting its proposal without considering it.

"What I find extraordinary (is) that without even proper consideration the French government have decided that they will reject these proposals," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

Iain Duncan Smith, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, emerged from a meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair to say war appeared likely because of France.

He (Blair) made the reason for this as the fact that the French have become completely intransigent," he told journalists.

The attacks reflected Britain's anger with what it sees as a cynical French ploy aimed at creating a French-led counterweight to the United States in world affairs.

British officials contend privately that French President Jacque Chirac is also intent on preserving traditional lucrative commercial ties with Iraq, which he helped build in the 1970s.
[...]
British officials were angry after de Villepin rejected a British proposal for a U.N. resolution outlining steps Saddam would have to follow to prove he was scrapping his weapons of mass destruction. Paris says Iraq can be disarmed peacefully and claims Britain and the United States just want a new U.N. resolution to launch a war.

Britain, which is deeply divided over war with Iraq, appeared relieved to turn to bashing its traditional European rival. Anglo-French enmity stretches back centuries and belittling the French is a passionate British pastime, fully reciprocated by many French.

British newspapers joined in the attack Thursday, blasting the French as untrustworthy and selfish.

The Sun tabloid attacked France with a front-page headline saying, "Blair Buries Le Worm," its nickname for Chirac.

Some British officials predicted privately that public anger at the French could boost support for Blair, who faces strong opposition inside his Labor Party over his determination to back the United States even if it means attacking Iraq without U.N. approval. Most Britons don't want a war without U.N. approval, polls show.
The British anger with France is reflected in Washington, where U.S. officials have said Paris' threat to use its veto no matter what had sent the wrong message to Saddam.

British frustration and anger with France has been building for weeks.

Straw, normally noted for quiet courtesy, seemed to mock his French counterpart during a recent U.N. Security Council debate, ironically referring to him as "my friend Dominique" as de Villepin scowled.

For my money, this is one of those "lighter" moments of the war....
Did anyone else laugh when they heard that one of the British requirements for the new resolution was that Saddam had to go on TV and tell everyone in Arabic that he had WMD and was disarming?
I thought it was hilarious--just the thought of it!
(I'm sure that Saddam lost his lunch or blew up with rage when he heard that! He would rather die--literally--than do that and I'm sure the Brits knew that well, hence the reason it was made a condition!)
Far better for the French to be yelled at by the Brits, also, who have those cute accents and such beautiful speaking voices!
It always sounds far worse when they "read your beads" than when we do it, doesn't it?
And it sounds more learned and "civilized" coming from those Oxbridge graduates Blair, Straw and Greenstock whereas the French would call our guys "hicks and hot-headed cowboys" if we dressed them down.
This calls Perfidious Paris out and clears the air by getting everything out in the open...and a leader other than Bush is taking the heat, which Jacques Iraq richly deserves for backing evil! Yes!
I don't have to tell you that France's behavior has been nothing short of shameful.
I don't have the foggiest idea why they're protecting Iraq unless they've sold Iraq WMD, have big oil contracts with Saddam, or are even in an actual military concordat with him. Or all three.
Or why they're pretending they don't know that it's only the very real threat of military force that has produced any cooperation from Saddam!
But they have well and truly stabbed the U.S.A. in the back--first in NATO and now in the U.N.
As for the British relationship with the French, the Brits have also been betrayed by the Frogs in the UN and NATO and in the EU by all of their recent "spats" over Common Agricultural Policy, the visit of Mugabe to Paris, etc. etc.
As a direct consequence of this, I hope Britain never adopts the EUro!
Of course, I hoped that before all this happened, too, but...
And I have reason to hope that because of this contretemps with France and Germany they very well may not!
(Blair did put off the referendum about the adoption of the EU in the UK for another year.)
France has just given Britain a terrific lesson in what could happen if the EU were theoretically capable of implementing a "common" foreign policy and it wasn't pretty:
on paper, each EU member is supposed to have a voice in the shaping of such policy, yet we now know that France and Germany intend to share the top spot and boss around the others simply because they're "superior," on some scale of quality known only to them.
Better hold onto your sovereignity, Great Britain, in every way you can!
Not only do I hope that you never change the EUro for the British Pound, but that the day is coming soon when you actually leave the EU altogether!
And that goes for the other Group of the [United We Stand] 8 and the Vilnius Group countries of New Europe who are all holding votes soon about EU membership.
Don't do it!
Stay free!