French PM: U.S. Made Triple Mistake Starting Iraq War

Reuters ^ | Thu Apr 3, 2003 | Jon Boyle

[XJarhead]

he told me that what REALLY pissed off the Euros was when Rummy called them "Old Europe." That hurt them.

My brother -- a Freeper himself -- travels to Germany on business periodically, and was there last months. And you're right. He said they pointedly avoided political topics except to once refer to themselves as "Old Europe."

Yeah, that was a Rummy precision-guided munition. Direct hit. Really, though, they asked for it.

[Rocky]

The U.S. made a triple mistake:

1. We thought the French would be on our side

2. We thought the Germans would be on our side

3. We thought the U.N. would stand behind their resolution

As the Who once sang, "We won't get fooled again!"

[bart99]

"Perhaps the French simply don't understand what "mistake" means, as in: Pissing off your largest national customer of wines and champaign is hardly a clever move when your own remnant of a nation already has 9+% unemployment."

---

I think they were more concerned with their arms contracts and $25 Billion dollar future oil contract with Saddam. With his regime gone, they re now saying that those contracts should be honored by the new Iraqi Government. Fat chance.

[XJarhead]

he told me that what REALLY pissed off the Euros was when Rummy called them "Old Europe." That hurt them.

My brother -- a Freeper himself -- travels to Germany on business periodically, and was there last month. And you're right. He said they pointedly avoided political topics except to once refer to themselves as "Old Europe." It really bugged them.

Yeah, that was a Rummy precision-guided munition. Direct hit. Really, though, they asked for it. And the only reason it was such a direct hit was because of the element of truth. France and Germany are relatively less important than they were 30 years ago.

[Southack]

"...Europeans who now believe that there is no legitimate reason for the use of military action."

And even that premise is another Leftist lie.

The French not only support war (when it suits them), but it was Chirac's Bastille Day speech demanding that NATO act *without* UN approval and without UN inspectors verifying the wild-eyed claims of "mass graves" of hundreds of thousands of civilians...that convinced Clinton to wage war along with France and Germany against Serbia over Kosovo in 1999.

Yet the Western press calls Chirac a "peace-maker".

Talk about doublespeak...

[blackbart.223]

That says it all about The French.

[Brian Allen]

<< The only mistake ..... Britain made was in assuming that France was dealing with them in good faith.

It's a mistake that won't be repeated, I'll be willing to bet. >>

Don't bet your shirt.

Blair's once-great Brits will soon be back grovelling at the feet of its Brussells-based Neo-Soviet's Franco-German bosses as their sad state continues its downwardly-spiralling loss of sovereignty and sliding into squalid socialist satellite statehood.

Bet on that!

[Republican Wildcat]

That was what I was about to say--we did make those mistakes, in thinking at any time that France was an ally.

[Free Vulcan]

Very interesting take. Don't think the Iraqi's are going to care much for the countries who propped up Saddam, and probably won't have much desire to deal with them in the future, which is going to economically hurt France big.

[Brian Allen]

<< .... your own remnant of a state already has 9+% unemployment. >>

When the "unemployment figures" of every one of the squalidly-socialist EURO-peon states are expanded to include the millions of the otherwise deservedly unemployed who are either directly "employed" on the gummint dole or who are the recipients of grants , hand-outs and subsidies, more than half of Europe is unemployed!

[ALS]

[Eagle737]

France, Germany, Belgium......all a bunch of pathetic socialist losers with an inferiority complex to the United States. France. Here's a country that would surrender if they were threatened with invasion by the Jamaican army. Ya right, lets let the French tell us how we should defend ourselves. Ever do a word search on the internet for 'French Military Victories'? You'll get back the response: 'Sorry. No Results Found. Are you sure you didn't mean 'French Military Defeats?'

[Kudsman]

vague threats of a U.S. consumer boycott of French goods,

Oh yeah real vague Mr. Raffarin. I know I have purchased local NY wine. I also put back a nice US flag pattern handkerchief Wegmans had on sale, that was tagged "Made in USA of imported fabric from FRANCE".

Paris has launched a determined campaign to avoid portrayal as a Saddam sympathizer.

I believe your comrade friends call this propaganda. I call it MERDE!

[maro]

Gallia delenda est.

[Khepera]

They continue to be cowards.

[El Cid]

The only 'Triple Mistakes' I can think of that have to do with France are:

Rescuing France in 1917.
Rescuing France in 1944.
Trying to help the sorry buggers out in Indochina after they lost their Army at Dienbienphu.

But what the hey, I'm sure Le' France can go drop some nukes on some islands in Polynesia and impress us all that they need to be taken seriously as a world power...
or not.

[EERinOK]

You pretty much said it all on each of 3 points before I got to post it so I'll just reply a great big ditto to you.

The only two things I'd like to add is the ridiculousness of France saying the Isreal-Pali situation is a one that could set the world ablaze at any moment. Well its been going on for how long now over Isreal, and the world, except for parts of greater BagDad, ain't exactly ablaze.

He also said that no one country should lead the world. Well if no one else has the guts, then the only one with any, will and should lead.

[Kay Soze]

Had France and the others not violated the UN Resolutions on Iraq for the last 12 years NONE of this would have been necessary.

The Moral French fired on US Troops enroute to get Hitler.

The Moral French also allowed and supported the Hutus that slashed 800,000 tutsi to death.

These same moral French allowed Mugabe to visit Paris even though the rest of the EU had banned him from ever setting foot in an EU Country.

The really nice part about heaven - there will be no French there.

[DannyTN]

Good points. On Leadership. I had a roommate from England back before the fall of the Soviet Union. I asked why Europe always seemed to criticize the US but not the Soviet Union. His reponse was, that America holds up an ideal to the world. And any time you hold up an ideal you open yourself up to criticism. He said, Oh we know the Soviets are the bad guys. But we have to live next to them. If America isn't going to lead, we sure as heck are not going to. That more than anything else made me realize. We are the superpower. We are the leader by default. And it's just unlikely that if we don't lead that smaller countries will.

[appalachian_dweller]

>> Under French law it is a criminal offence to insult the president <<

Damn! That's mucked up. No wonder the frogs were taking up for SH. Their laws are from the same book.