I recently got a PM regarding my sig. Most of what is in it came from story the local radio statio (KFI in LA) did on the morning drive. The host was Bill Handel. Well, here's the transcript of the story, from the station website.
You can only be allies with one side. France has clearly chosen its ally. It's not us.
As Dennis Miller said, "We should bomb Iraq, then bomb Chiraq!"
FRANCE IRAQ RELATIONSHIP
INTRO: By now you know about France?s intractable position with regards to the UN Security Council vote. It will veto this current resolution which calls for war with Iraq. France has taken the lead position in opposing the US and Britain with regards to taking out Saddam Hussein.
The question is why?
To understand the French/Iraq relationship you have to look to the past.
HISTORY: Let?s start back at 1958.
More than a decade has passed since the end of WWII and the globe is separated into two super powers?the US and the Soviet Union.
French President Charles de Gaulle is busy trying to set up the Fifth Republic?a political group dedicated to the rebirth of France as a world power.
One of the methods to achieve this is to make friends with Third World nations. During the late 50?s and early 60?s, De Gaulle developed good relations with several nations in Africa.
In time, these contacts enabled France to make new friends in the Arab world. De Gaulle stated to a French politician: "Don't you see we have traded Grandpa's empire for the much broader empire of the future, and the limited oil of the Sahara for the much more plentiful oil of Arabia?"
THE ARAB CONNECTION: While most of the Arab nations were under monarchies ?Iraq?s government had been overthrown by revolutionaries. The French exploited this opportunity by warming up to then Iraqi regime. One of the men instrumental in this relationship was a guy called Jacques Benoist Mechin?a French historian and military expert. He was very familiar with the Middle East and a confidant to most Arab leaders?.BUT his ties to Iraq were the strongest.
Benoist-Méchin told President De Gaulle: "Iraq really is the key to your Arab policy. Its oil reserves are second only to Saudi Arabia's. And the most reliable people in Iraq are the Baathists."
SADDAM IS IN: It is now 1969.
President DeGaulle resigns and Saddam Hussein begins his ruthless ascent to power in the Baath party. The contacts and relationships developed by Benoist Mechin thru out the 60?s begin to pay off in the 70?s. That?s when Saddam Hussein made the acquaintance of Jacques Chirac.
In 1974, then French Premier Chirac traveled to Baghdad to meet Iraqi VICE-president Saddam Hussein. During that visit, Chirac and Hussein conducted negotiations on a range of issues, the most important of these being Iraq?s purchase of nuclear reactors.
In September 1975, Hussein traveled to Paris, where Chirac personally gave him a tour of a French nuclear plant. During that visit, Chirac said, ?Iraq is in the process of beginning a coherent nuclear program and France wants to associate herself with that effort in the field of reactors.?
France sold two reactors to Iraq, with the agreement signed during Hussein?s visit. The Iraqis purchased a 70-megawatt reactor, along with enough weapons-grade uranium to produce three to four nuclear devices. Baghdad also purchased a one-megawatt research reactor, and France agreed to train 600 Iraqi nuclear technicians and scientists -- the core of Iraq?s nuclear capability today.
France also agreed to sell Iraq $1.5 billion worth of weapons -- an integrated air defense system, about 60 Mirage F1 fighter planes, surface-to-air missiles and advanced electronics. The Iraqis, for their part, agreed to sell France $70 million worth of oil.
During this period, Chirac and Hussein formed what Chirac called a close personal relationship. In 1987, the Manchester Guardian Weekly quoted Chirac as saying that he was ?truly fascinated by Saddam Hussein since 1974.?
That fascination continued thru the decades.
COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIPS: It is now 1981.
Iraq?s nuclear reactor is destroyed by the Israeli?s and Iraq goes to war with Iran.
Newly elected French President Francois Mitterand continues the relationship with Iraq?.betting that Iraq will win the war and therefore become the dominant power in the Middle East!
Mitterrand eventually agrees to resume and even upgrade French cooperation with Iraq, both supplying weapons and entering into industrial partnerships.
However, Saddam was bad business.
By 1989, when the Iraq-Iran war ended? about $10 billion worth of French arms had been delivered to Iraq. Saddam had paid less than $5 billion of the bill. (NOTE: Iraq-related orders accounted for about half of all French arms production.)
A couple of years later in 1991?when Iraq invaded Kuwait?the French had to re-evaluate their support of Saddam AGAIN.
The majority of French people?across the political spectrum? stood by Iraq. (French defense minister, Jean-Pierre Chevènement, resigned from the cabinet rather than condone military intervention. An even larger share of the public was inclined to neutrality.)
Mitterrand, however, decided to be practical than to hold on to his ideals.
Even after engaging in last-minute negotiations with Baghdad, France joined the American-led international coalition for the liberation of Kuwait.
It was obvious to Mitterand that Iraq was no match for the United States and that France?s old strategy made no sense now that the Cold War was over and the Soviet Union was disintegrating. It no longer served the national interest of France to challenge America, but to be among the winners and so have a say in the final settlement, whatever it might be.
THE PROBLEMS TODAY: SO?in the 12 years between the end of the first Gulf War til the present ?
France has been a solid supporter of the US in other international events?such as Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan. The rationale is still to be seen as a peer of the one and only superpower--and incidentally to keep in touch with the superpower's ever-improving military technology and training.
Right now, France confronts an ironic situation. After the first Gulf War, Saddam was allowed to survive. The only sensible response for the French was to keep their distance. Now that George W. Bush, is serious about getting rid of Saddam?France is trying to hinder that.
Partly because of Chirac?s history with Saddam?or because of France's growing Islamic population?or because France wants to emerge as a world player by taking on the strongest power on earth.
SOURCE: Weekly Standard
You can only be allies with one side. France has clearly chosen its ally. It's not us.
As Dennis Miller said, "We should bomb Iraq, then bomb Chiraq!"
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