U.S. 'Under No Illusions' About French Vote

Reuters ^ | 3/10/03

[kattracks]

Mon March 10, 2003 03:25 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior U.S. official reacted coolly to French President Jacques Chirac's promise to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution paving the way to war with Iraq and said such a veto would not surprise Washington.

"We're under no illusions about France," said the U.S. official, who asked not to be named. "We're not particularly going to react to a single statement. We would not at all be surprised if France stayed with a 'no' vote to the end."

While stressing that he was not predicting any change of heart by the French, the U.S. official said: "This will evolve. Maybe he'll (Chirac) evolve too. This is one statement."

"We're certainly not predicting anything," he added, speaking soon after Chirac told France's LCI television channel that France would veto a resolution paving the way to war with Iraq if the measure received a majority on the U.N. Security Council.

The United States has threatened to launch a war against Iraq if it fails to give up its suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs. Iraq denies it has such weapons.

Britain and the United States have proposed giving Iraq a March 17 ultimatum to cooperate fully with disarmament demands or face war, but the new proposed U.N. resolution so far lacked a majority and faced strong opposition from France and Russia.

[DoughtyOne]

[1Old Pro]

"We're under no illusions about France,"

In other words, we don't expect Rance to do the right thing and frankly, we don't give a damn.

[1Old Pro]

LOL, I love it.

[UncleSamUSA]

"We're under no illusions about France,"

Or put another way: "Once a gutless Surrender Monkey, always a gutless Surrender Monkey."

[shadowman99]

I have a rather dark fantasy about after the war. I see the liberated people of Iraq burning flags in the streets - flags of the UN, France, and Germany. I have a feeling the Iraqis will remember who helped Saddam. Payback time.

[prairiebreeze]

**Maybe he'll (Chirac) evolve too**

You mean from a reptile into an actual human being??

Doubt it.

Prairie

[prairiebreeze]

**I have a feeling the Iraqis will remember who helped Saddam**

Well I think they would if they had accurate knowlege about it. I think we can likely rest assured that right now the Iraqi press is glowing about their life-long friends the FrenchFrogs and pointing all sorts of vile motives and aspirations toward the US and Britain.

Prairie

[PhiKapMom]

Fox is reporting that the President will be disappointed if the Russians also veto but they have not ruled it out that Russia will also veto.

[KaiserofKrunch]

Big 10-4!

[KaiserofKrunch]

Their best move would be to wait until France has to veto, and then just abstain. That would really screw the french.

[Post Toasties]

I really hope we don't drag this new UN Resolution crap out any more than necessary, since, as I predicted, there's nothing that's likely to modify Ol' Yurrup's intransigence from this point on.

[PhiKapMom]

That's funny! The WH Spokesman said he wants everyone on record how they are going to vote.

Pakistan has said they will abstain!

They also said it wouldn't surprise them to see Russia and Putin veto the resolution.

[capitan_refugio]

Kat - here's how you handle the Frogs ...

I'm guessing that the French have told several of the other members of the Security Council that it would be okay to vote with the Americans because France is going to shoulder the burden of a veto. Wink wink, nod nod type of thing.

Tomorrow at the vote, Sec. Powell reminds the French of their bad history when it comes to inspections and collaboration. He compares Chirac and the French Foreign Minister to Petain and Laval. He presents France's sordid history of selling arms and nuclear technology to Iraq, including their recent shipment of spare parts for military helicopters.

Then Powell announces that we are withdrawing our Ambassador from Paris and that we request that the French remove their diplomats from the United States. Our reason - we cannot have Iraqi collaborators in our country during a time of war. And, oh, by the way, we are freezing French bank accounts, declaring them a terrorist-supporting country, and taking them off the "Most Favored" trade list.

The French economy would tank and the other European rats would scatter. The "third world" members of the Security Council would simultaneously excuse themselves to go change their collective underwear.

[Cap Huff]

"The WH Spokesman said he wants everyone on record how they are going to vote."

This is not the first time that this has been said. Didn't Bush say something like this last week? There is a good reason for that. I would love to know what they know.

[capitan_refugio]

I would add, by the way, that Powell should tell the UN that it could remove its operations and deliberations to the old League of Nations headquarters in Geneva.