http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1040801,00.htmlParis dispatch
Plus ça change ...
France has not exactly jumped at the latest US proposals for troop deployments in Iraq. Jon Henley experiences a sense of déjà vu
Friday September 12, 2003
"France and Germany, the leading opponents of a US-led intervention in Iraq, have rejected an American-drafted security council resolution aimed at ... " Sounds horribly familiar, doesn't it? As I recall, the same kind of opening paragraph appeared on the top of a great many news stories earlier this year, in the run-up to the American and British invasion of Iraq. And, looking pretty much identical, here it is again, this time in relation to Washington's unexpected call last week for more countries to contribute troops and money to its embattled post-war occupation.
Two days ago, Paris and Berlin (just as they did before) submitted amendments to the US draft, essentially offering Washington a deal: we will approve American military leadership of a multinational force in Iraq, but only if US political control is downgraded in favour of the Iraqis themselves and the United Nations. Predictably, the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, stamped on that one robustly, publicly ridiculing the idea that America might give up power quickly and - in another depressing echo of those bruising pre-war clashes - rather misrepresenting the Franco-German position.
"Suggestions that ... all we have to do is get up tomorrow morning and find an Iraqi who is passing by and give him the government and say, 'You're now in charge and Ambassador Bremer and the American army are leaving', that's not an acceptable solution," he said. Nor, of course, is it exactly what France and Germany are proposing.
So are we heading inexorably towards another transatlantic power struggle, a wearying repeat of the daggers-drawn, over-my-dead-body non-diplomacy that saw the death of dialogue and the birth of "old Europe", "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" and "freedom fries"?
I can't speak for the likely US response, but from France's standpoint at least it seems unlikely. First, despite what must be at times an almost overwhelming temptation to say "I told you so," there has been little if any sign of official Gallic gloating at America's current predicament in Iraq. French officials, from President Jacques Chirac down, warned repeatedly before the war that America was biting off more than it alone could chew. A all-but-unilateral invasion would only encourage further terrorist attacks, create a vast range of new and unpredictable political, economic and security-related problems in Iraq, and risked destabilising the entire region, they said. Most of this has proved true. But perhaps surprisingly, no one in Paris is reminding Washington of that now. <snip>
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
