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[shawa]

Interesting history of Chirac. He has always opposed U.S.
John French Kerry is dreaming!

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/31246.htm

JOHN KERRY'S FANTASY FRIEND

By AMIR TAHERI
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October 29, 2004

THE main criticism that John Kerry has leveled against President Bush's foreign policy is that it has alienated U.S. allies. Kerry proposes to "bring back the allies" with a multilateralist approach.
There is, of course, no factual basis for Kerry's claim. The United States is heading a coalition of 67 nations in Afghanistan and 34 nations in Iraq. All NATO allies are actively present in Afghanistan. And in Iraq, the only NATO allies dragging their feet are France, Belgium and Greece. All of America's Arab allies also provided valuable help in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Britain's Tony Blair is under attack from his own Labor Party friends for allegedly favoring Bush. Italy's Silvio Berlusconi has made no secret of his preference for the incumbent at the White House. Even Germany's Gerhard Schroeder has gone out of his way in recent months to patch things up with Washington and, by siding with the U.S. in NATO against France over Iraq, is clearly endorsing Bush.

Australians have just re-elected the unambiguously pro-Bush Prime Minister John Howard with an increased majority. Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi makes no secret of his admiration for Bush, whom he calls "Gary Cooper." And Russia's Vladimir Putin has just offered his own roundabout endorsement of Bush.

So who are "the allies" that Kerry wants to bring back on board? The only possible answer is French President Jacques Chirac. But Kerry would quickly find out that he has more in common with George W than with frere Jacques.

Kerry, for example, supported the liberation of Afghanistan from the start. Chirac dragged his feet until the Taliban had fled Kabul. Kerry voted for the liberation of Iraq, while Chirac did all he could to keep Saddam Hussein in power.

Then, too, Kerry says he wants to organize a conference in Iraq. Chirac agrees — but wants to include elements from Saddam's regime and from the so-called "resistance." Will Kerry sit down with Abu-Massab al-Zarqawi and one of Saddam's cousins to discuss the future of Iraq?

Chirac's opposition to Bush's policy does not stem from W's supposed arrogance. It is based on a fundamental principle of Gaullist ideology that sees America as a "frere-ennemi" (brother-foe).

One must assume that Kerry envisages a leadership role for the United States. Chirac rejects that — he wants America recast in the role of a partner of equal stature to others. In Chirac's vision, the United States should not even be regarded as the first among equals.

Chirac, who accuses Bush of trying to create a unipolar world system, preaches a multi-polar one. Logically, however, no system can have more than two poles: If one is attached to one pole, one stands in opposition to the other. So, if Chirac is not in the American pole he must, by definition, be in the opposite one, whatever it happens to be.

Chirac's opposition to U.S. leadership has a long history. His Gaullist party asked America to close its bases in France in 1965 and to withdraw U.S. troops stationed there since liberation. The same party cancelled France's membership of NATO's key military committee because it did not want French troops ever to serve under U.S. command.

In 1986, Chirac, then prime minister, closed the French air space to U.S. aircraft sent to bomb the Libyan capital Tripoli and condemned the entire operation ordered by President Ronald Reagan. In other words, Chirac chose Col. Moammar Kaddhafi over France's American allies.

In 1990, Chirac (then leader of the opposition) did all he could to prevent France from joining the U.S.-led coalition that liberated Kuwait from Saddam. Had he been in power instead of President Francois Mitterrand, there is no doubt that France would not have joined that first anti-Saddam coalition.

Chirac is especially sensitive on the issue of Iraq for several reasons. Since the late 1950s, successive French governments have regarded Iraq as France's fiefdom in the Middle East. For decades, the state-owned Compagnie Francaise des Petroles controlled much of Iraq's oil. And without arms sales to the Iraqi market (it was Saddam's No. 2 supplier, after the Soviets), France would have been unable to develop several new generations of its famous Mirage fighter planes.

Chirac first met Saddam on a visit to Baghdad in 1975. According to Philippe Rondot, a friend of Chirac and a biographer of Saddam, it was "love at first sight." Gaullists always like "strongmen" and, in Saddam, Chirac found an impressive Arab example of that.

In order to supply Saddam Hussein with a nuclear capacity, Chirac refused to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). And when the Israelis destroyed the Iraqi nuclear center in a raid in 1980, Chirac described the action as "an act of barbarism by an outlaw state."

Chirac was the only Western head of government to visit Baghdad during the Ba'athist reign of terror. He was also the only Western leader to invite Saddam for a state visit accompanied by full honors.

Chirac's opposition to "American hegemony," in short, did not start with Bush and will not end even if French-speaking John Kerry enters the White House.

This does not mean that Chirac is anti-American in the vulgar sense; rather, he regards many key concepts of U.S. foreign policy as either self-serving or naive. On more than one occasion he has described Bush's idea of spreading democracy to the Middle East as a "harebrained scheme."

Pre-Bush, Chirac had a lively exchange in 1996 with President Bill Clinton over encouraging democracy in Africa. In a public rebuke to Clinton, Chirac told a summit of French-speaking African nations that introducing a multiparty system to the continent could lead to "tribalism of the worst kind."

Suppose that Chirac does abandon his Gaullist ideology, and a lifetime of opposing various U.S. presidents of both parties, to please John Kerry. There is precious little that France can do in practical terms to help the United States rebuild Iraq in a way that reflects the interests both of the United States and the Iraqi people. Chirac has no troops to send to Iraq and, even if he did, he might not find it easy to do, since he has been heating up French opinion against any intervention in Iraq on the side of he Americans.

Reduced to its bare bones, Kerry's foreign policy amounts to little more than wishful thinking, especially as far as enlisting Chirac's support for American ambitions is concerned. Don't be surprised if Kerry, if elected president, quickly reverts to the Bush Doctrine . . . after renaming it after himself.

[shooter]

If Terrreeeza and Jaques are kerry's fantacies....... God save us!!!!
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ADC USN Ret.

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