June 29, 2004

Bite Me, Frog-boy II
Posted by Dale Franks

Good old Jacque Chirac. Evidently, he didn't get enough satisfaction at sniping at the US at yesterday's NATO summit. So he started in again today.

As the alliance struggles to define its role in a post-Cold War world, French President Jacques Chirac forcefully stated his opposition to any collective NATO presence on the ground in Iraq, suggesting it should limit its role to coordinating national efforts and training outside the country.

"I am completely hostile to the idea of a NATO establishment in Iraq," Chirac told a news conference. "It would be dangerous, counterproductive and misunderstood by the Iraqis, who after all deserve a little bit of respect."

On Afghanistan, Chirac rejected an American proposal that NATO's elite new response force be deployed to provide security for elections scheduled in September.

Remember, please, that with all this talk about NATO troops, that France does not participate in the military alliance. France holds a seat on the political council, but contributes no troops to NATO, and does not participate in NATO military operations in any sense, except to send small observer missions.

So, nobody's talking about forcing France to send any troops, anywhere. Yet, despite the fact that France contributes nothing whatsoever to NATO militarily, Chirac is trying to exercise a veto on other NATO countries from engaging in NATO military missions.

It's about time that W call our ambassador to France home for "consultations".

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Comments

Dale, I think that the proposal was to send NATO's NRF force, which actually does have a French contingent.

Posted by: Captain Ed at June 29, 2004 06:21 PM

The proposal to send NATO-flagged troops to Iraq wasn't

Posted by: Dale Franks at June 29, 2004 09:20 PM

Good grief, France and Chirac continues to amaze me. They shouldn't be referred to as "allies" anymore.

Posted by: Cody at June 29, 2004 10:39 PM

Wow, le grande Jacques has discovered that Iraqis (presumably meaning the actual populace, not some gangster regime running the country) deserve respect? Funny, that didn't seem to be his view since, oh, 1984 or so. Glad to see he's flexible.

The Afghanistan thing is sort of amazing. I keep wondering whether the administration will finally decide that, since France remains utterly perverse and contrary on things like this anyway, it's time to help themselves politically by pointing it out. The whole fantasy-world "debate" about "internationalizing" Iraq and "alienated allies" could and should be debunked by simply recounting the French record. Not that this would resonate usefully -- seems that most folks who ever bought this bogus issue to begin with aren't the informed or thoughtful sort who would actually integrate new relevant info.


Posted by: IceCold at June 29, 2004 10:49 PM