I'll grant you all the rational arguments about the UN resolution. I
personally think the resolution should have been defeated simply on the
basis of bad grammar alone, but that's me.
What I resent is the french setting themselves up as the one and only
obstacle to the resolution passing. France is a relatively small country
with a huge economy that competes ruthlessly around the world for markets.
They will sell anything to anyone where there's a buck to be made (Mind you,
I am without equal in my admiration for capitalism) including Mirage jets to
Qaddafi and oil service contracts to Saddam Hussein.
Since I expect countries to act in their own interests, I didn't wonder when
France opposed the resolution and the war. What bothers me is that they
*prevented* by unilateral action the resolution from reaching a vote. I
would have thought that a strong trading partner with enormous markets for
French goods who, by the way, is a western democracy might have gotten the
benefit of the doubt. Instead, France has set themselves up as our opponent
and has wielded their unilateral power to prevent us from obtaining
something we thought we needed. That smacks of self-importance,
self-interest and, in my historical view, ingratitude.
France is a small country whose markets are protected in large part by the
happy geography of being walled off from any potential enemies by Nato
countries. Their economy thrives without the nasty little problem of
maintaining a standing army. They are spared the responsibility of ever
paying more than lipservice to their international morality. In short, they
are never obligated to put their money where their mouth is.
Personally, I've taken France off my vacation list for some time to come.
There is one place there I'd like to see, though, just for a sense of
historical perspective: Vichy.
Andy
-----Original Message-----
From: profox-admin /AT/ leafe DO.T com [mailto:profox-admin@leafe.com]On Behalf Of
Ed Leafe
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2003 4:00 PM
To: profox /AT/ leafe DO.T com
Subject: Re: [OT] : French Products and Companies to Boycott
On Monday, March 31, 2003, at 03:16 PM, John Sumrall wrote:
> By saying that no matter what you put in that resolution we're going
> to veto
> it, France took upon itself to say to America, "We are against
> whatever you
> say". That left a bad taste in my mouth toward France, so I spit it
> out.
Maybe instead of putting it in your mouth, you should use your eyes.
France never said any such thing. What they said they would not agree
to is the USA-proposed notion of drop-dead dates. E.g., completely
disarm by such-and-such a date, or war will be authorized. They have
said all along that it is impossible to prove that you don't have
something, and as long as the inspectors were not being prevented from
their tasks, that war shouldn't be an automatically-invoked option. The
US refused to submit any proposal that did not have war as an automatic
option, and chose to withdraw instead.
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Ed Leafe
http://leafe.com/
http://opentech.leafe.com
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©2003 Andrew Weiss |
