| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| France Tries to Patch Up Ties with U.S. |
| 2003-04-25 |
| U.S. President George Bush is known for making politics personal. With his emphasis on loyalty, crossing the president has become a risky endeavor in Washington and, as the Iraq crisis has shown, even beyond Americaâs shores. With the support of the leaders of Germany and Russia, French President Jacques Chirac drew Bushâs ire in the prelude to war by vowing to veto any U.N. resolution authorizing military action. With the fall of Baghdad, Chirac has since made plenty of conciliatory noises towards the United States, including backing a U.S. initiative to end U.N. sanctions against Iraq. But Bush appears to have singled out Paris for special retribution, even though Berlin and Moscow were equally outspoken critics of the war. âI doubt heâll be coming to the ranch any time soon,â Bush told U.S. television station NBC on Friday, making clear Chirac remained persona non grata. The ranch is for friends only, I don't think Putin will be asked back either. The U.S. Defense Department on Thursday said it would scale back American participation at the Paris Air Show in what is being interpreted as a hardly concealed snub. Only six aircraft would be displayed at the show this June instead of 11 last time round, a Pentagon spokesman said. "This is senior Department of Defense officials' way of expressing their displeasure with French government policy on Iraq," Joel Johnson, vice president of international affairs for the U.S. Aerospace Industry Association told the Reuters news agency. Word is that no military officer over the grade of Colonel is going to be allowed to attend. That the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were annoyed at the French has long been no secret. But perhaps more ominously, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell â the one Bush administration member once considered as less interested in pursuing retaliation against France â said this week that Paris could expect to suffer the consequences of having opposed Washington. Colin Powell doesn't like being stabbed in the back. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #12 Colin does not have to punish Canada. We are doing a great job all by ourselves. Support the UN on Iraq and get blindsided by WHO on SARS. Way to go Chretien! |
| Posted by: john 2003-04-25 19:57:37 |
| #11 Powell now says we will not punish Canada, Mexico, or Chile. I would support freezing out Mexico. Too many of their damned citizens are here illegally, they keep repeatedly crossing over in precisely that manner after being caught and deported, and Fox isn't willing to do a damned thing about it except insist that they should stay in the U.S. so that they can continue their bloodsucking. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-04-25 17:12:43 |
| #10 Canada, Mexico, and Chile were passively opposed. Germany would have been passive too if they weren't Allied to the French to take over the EU. Russia wouldn't have acted if France had not acted up. France's opposition was active and venal: The lesson will be that if you oppose us, do it for noble reasons, not ignoble ones. And don't be pompous asses while doing so... |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-04-25 17:10:36 |
| #9 Canada, Mexico, and Chile were passively opposed. Germany would have been passive too if they weren't Allied to the French to take over the EU. Russia wouldn't have acted if France had not acted up. France's opposition was active and venal: The lesson will be that if you oppose us, do it for noble reasons, not ignoble ones. And don't be pompous asses while doing so... |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-04-25 17:07:43 |
| #8 "Pour l'encouragement de l'autre" |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-04-25 16:44:33 |
| #7 Powell now says we will not punish Canada, Mexico, or Chile. He has said we will punish France. No comments thus far (AFAIK) on Germany or Russia. Looks like we'll focus the retribution on France alone. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-04-25 15:26:47 |
| #6 CC - occurs to me that releasing stuff on Galloway would be a very nice signal to France of what we have on them. Not sure. We'll see how it plays out. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-04-25 14:56:51 |
| #5 I really, really want to know what's in that box marked "France" next to the box that yielded the incriminating evidence of Galloway. |
| Posted by: ColoradoConservative 2003-04-25 14:52:40 |
| #4 Six Planes? Couple of B2s would be all that is necessary to put on a great JDAM demonstration... |
| Posted by: john 2003-04-25 14:52:02 |
| #3 Tell 'em we want another statue. And hop to it! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-04-25 14:22:46 |
| #2 Why bother with Paris? Farnsworth is more than adequate, and it's in more friendly territory, to boot. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-04-25 14:15:05 |
| #1 My father once told me "If you play Baseball with some people, they'll stick the bat up your ass." The White House has a few employees that haven't been able to sit comfortably for a over a month, and they won't soon forget about it. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2003-04-25 13:52:49 |