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Wednesday, March 19, 2003
posted by gbarto at 11:52 PM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: The War has begun.
At 3:50 Paris time, the White House announced that "the first of of the disarmament of the Iraqi regime has begun. The first bombings targeted the Iraqi capital at dawn. The American President, George W. Bush, declared in a speech: "We have no ambition in Iraq other than to remove a menace and put control of this country in the hands of its own people. According to Washington, the first strikes targeted "highly placed" Iraqis. The Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, in military dress, compared the American attack to "a shameful crime against humanity" in a televised speech. "We will resist the invader," he assured.So that's the first thing we learn at Le Monde. Let's also check editorials. Yesterday, we had the "American setback." Today, it's a "Setback for Blair". For all these "setbacks" Le Monde keeps finding, you'd think their writers had a shortcut key for it. Unfortunately, the article won't come up ("Echec pour Le Monde") so I can only guess it's about Mr. Blair's having to settle for strong support in his party and widespread support among the opposition instead of unanimous support from his own party, in much the same way that American setbacks have forced us to renounce our dreams of French support and limp along with the most powerful army in the world and a not unimpressive British force supplementing that.
Le Figaro: The Second Persian Gulf War has begun. Also, Le Figaro has this editorial: A pyrrhic victory for the war camp. You see, it's a pyrrhic victory if you lose French approval to win your fight. After all, what counts more? A battlefield strategy to minimize your own and civilian casualties or the French imprimatur? Ask the folks in the Ivory Coast. They'll tell you how much better things go if you have the French on board. The pyrrhic victory editorial, incidentally, starts, "The United States' stubborn insistence on getting Saddam ran right up against France's determination to stop any war." That the next sentence doesn't say, "And rolled right over it like a tank over a Yugo" lets us know that the writer is living in a fantasy land where France's upset over recent developments is the number one thing on everyone's minds. It should be safe to dispense with it, but we have to quote this one other sentence: "The affront was Homeric..."
Sing, goddess, the anger of George Bush's son, George W!If there's an awful epic here, it would seem like the actors would be the US and Iraq, with France a mere sideshow. But if you're going to pretend that France is anything but a major hassle we decided to do without, you ought to tell your story in style, like my suggestion. Le Figaro's sentence limped to the conclusion, "but in the end, it was the story of the iron pot against the clay pot." Which means they lose points for puffery, lack of creativity and lousy metaphor mixing. (Not that this page doesn't experience its share of the above.)
Who, reckless, wracked the multilateralists with a thousand pains,
Sent to the edge of insanity myriads of strong minds
Of pacifist ministers, who gave their rituals useless to be discharged
To diplomats, and UN lackeys, as the will of BUSH was to be done....
- a parody after Homer by yours truly
Libé: Three series of raids against Bagdad. And here's, Germany "in consternation," Paris demands that the conflict "be ended as rapidly as possible." Finally, Bush and Chirac agree! I'm pretty sure Bush would like the conflict ended pretty damn quick too. Saddam Hussein, if you're listening, if you will just move to Tunisia (Arafat seemed to like it) then Jacques Chirac's number one wish of the hour will be fulfilled! C'mon, be a pal. After all, he's done so much for you...
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