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Wednesday, March 19, 2003
posted by gbarto at 3:53 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Tony Blair can go to war against Iraq (covered in post below). Also, a thoroughly odious editorial about the "American setback." Says Le Monde, the US misjudged French resolve, Turkish opinion, etc. and embarrassed itself while Paris established itself as a moral leader. Too bad it destroyed its two main platforms - the UN and the EU - to win these victories. But the contempt of the editorial belies the "We are all New Yorkers" headline of two years ago while its sniveling tone reminds that for all its augustness, its puffery and its pride, Le Monde remains French, and thus possessed of a self-righteous arrogance to which George W. Bush hardly dare aspire.
Le Figaro: Saddam Hussein rejects Bush's ultimatum. Again, the sniveling. The French are too caught up in "their" win at the UN and in not letting us keep up the pressure on Iraq through the UNSC to notice that the result is war.
The US tried like hell to create what Paris claims to have wanted. Tried to bluff Saddam into making concessions here, concessions there, until he could be dealt with. But perhaps lacking the sophistication to understand, the French through the sort of tizzies designed to make Saddam think he should call our bluff. But, to continue our hackneyed metaphor, the French had an ace of clubs - their veto. Saddam an ace of hearts, his consummate instincts for mischief and survival. These cards did not need to be played. This could have been finished much more quietly. But once Paris showed its hand and upped the ante, the US had no choice but to drop the ace of spades: the best and biggest military in the world wedded to the strongest culture in the world.
France may be proud of itself for forcing our hand, but it won't like the results. Tant pis.
Libé: Chirac or America's Nightmare. Notes Libé, the US and UK are placing the blame for everything on France. And rightly so, as I explain with an awfully chosen and poorly constructed metaphor above. But soon, the headline will be America or Chirac's Nightmare as the institutions he used to battle us fall off into oblivion and the UN joins the League of Nations as a casualty of French indifference to madmen with mustaches.
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