French support Iraq over missles

PARIS (Reuters) - France hailed Iraq's agreement to scrap its al-Samoud 2 missiles as a sign of progress in its disarmament and said on Friday there was no majority in the U.N. Security Council for a resolution paving the way for war.

Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, speaking after British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) dismissed the Iraqi statement by remarking "this is not a time for games," said he saw no reason to cut short the peaceful disarmament of Iraq.

"A second resolution today would be the first step to war. That's not what we want and that's not what today is needed. We still can work for peace," Villepin said in English after talks with Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey.

Villepin pointed out that Russia, another veto-wielding member of the Security Council, also rejected a pro-war resolution drawn up by the United States, Britain and Spain.

But he declined to echo the veto threat that Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov made in Beijing on Friday, saying France wanted to keep all its options open.

"It's an important step in the disarmament of Iraq. It confirms that the inspections give results," he said of Iraq's pledge after separate talks with Greek counterpart George Papandreou.

"There is no reason to discontinue the peaceful disarmament of Iraq. We are opposed to the draft second resolution, as is a majority of the Security Council, and notably Russia," he said.........

Complete story at: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=574&u=/nm/20030228/wl_nm/iraq_france_villepin_dc_2&printer=1

This is precisely how a tyranny and its enabler work hand-in-hand. The destruction of the Al-Samoud missles should not have been newsworthy. Upon discovery, Iraq should have destroyed them immediately. Instead, they stalled in order to raise the importance of the matter. Then, at the last moment, they decide to destroy the weapons which appears to be some highly concilliatory move to aid the process of diplomacy. In reality, this move accomplishes little and does nothing about the stockpiles of chemical weapons that Iraq has not accounted for. These charades would not have weight in the war for public opinion were it not for Iraq's "Amen" corner in France and the Axis of Appeasement (including American liberals). Clearly, there will be some in the mainstream that will be convinced of Saddam's commitment to disarm in peace. The representation of this move as significant by the French will have an impact on these very same people. The French are in overdrive in their bid to keep the Iraqi dictator in charge. Reducing themselves to a mouthpiece to a murderous tyrant, France has perhaps even set a new low for themselves. A true ally does not provide political cover for America's enemies. Tyrants come and go. In this case, their enablers will linger on. A fair question is what to do about them.

Chirac and Saddam have to be in constant contact because this weak attempt at disarming Iraq must have been Chirac's idea. He probably told Saddam to destroy those missiles so Chirac could go to the UN and show them that Saddam is complying. These dirty little secrets hidden in Iraq must mean an awful lot to France....I can't wait until we find exactly what those dirty little secrets are! To have President Bush stand before the world with proof of Saddam's lies and Frances interests is going to be a grand day!!!

I agree. France's role as apologist for Iraq has been despicable. Their public relations ploy may have some impact. According to a Gallup poll, if Iraq removes the missles, people oppose war by roughly 60 to 30%. While I perceive this poll question to be cooked (the way it was asked, people were led to believe that the only sticking point in UN inspections with Iraq were the missles), it will give some naifs confidence that the inspections are working despite the fact that the missles are the tip of the iceberg. If it takes this long to squeeze such a modest concession from Hussein, inspections are an exercise in futility.

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