WSJ: Multilateralism a la Francaise - Saddam sure liked doing business with the French.

Wall Street Journal ^ | October 14, 2005 | Editorial

[OESY]

In reviewing the career of French diplomat Jean-Bernard Mérimée, two key moments stand out. In June 1995, Mr. Mérimée, then France's ambassador to the U.N., announced he was largely satisfied with the progress Iraq had made on disarmament and wanted sanctions lifted sooner rather than later. And this week, a French investigative magistrate brought Mr. Mérimée in for questioning on an allegation that he took a bribe from Saddam in the form of 11 million barrels of oil.

So now we know what French officialdom means by the word "multilateralism": One part involves speechifying about the need for international "consensus" and "legitimacy"; a second part involves doing business with dictators and doing their bidding at the U.N. Add to this mix the aggressive pursuit of the commercial interests....

Mr. Mérimée is far from the only well-connected Frenchman to be caught up in the U.N.'s Oil for Food scandal....

Nor is it relegated to individuals only. Charles Duelfer's Iraq Survey Group reported last year that French oil companies Total and Socap obtained a combined 198 million barrels in Iraqi oil vouchers. We have also learned from Paul Volcker's Oil for Food inquiry that Saddam Hussein steered $4.4 billion worth of oil contracts to French companies and $3 billion in "humanitarian" contracts....

But it ought to remind the world of two things: First, there was never a chance-- as some liberal fantasists still contend-- that more patient American diplomacy could have succeeded in creating an international consensus to enforce U.N. resolutions on Iraq, much less to depose Saddam. And second, the war in Iraq was not only an act of national liberation but also of international political hygiene. Any lingering doubts that certain French leaders were in need of a shower can now be dispelled.

[OESY]

For all their demagoguery about oil, Democrats have been supporting French oil and banking interests while attempting to do maximum harm to American interests. In a just world, Dems would pay dearly on election day, except in France.

[Piquaboy]

Saddam loved doing business with the UN about as much as with France.

[highlander_UW]

And second, the war in Iraq was not only an act of national liberation but also of international political hygiene. Any lingering doubts that certain French leaders were in need of a shower can now be dispelled.

One thing that has started to become clear is just how much the French veto on the UN security council costs. They should have their veto power revoked for this sort of corruption.