--- Jean-Marc Chaton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm interested in links to support your point 2. To > my knowledge France > hasn't got a particular link or lever with Turkey. > Germany has, though, > due to historial, sociological (large part of its > population is Turkish) > , and economical. But I can't stop thinking Turkey, > at least those > whose got the last word in Turkey, i.e. high rank > military, has and > always had their own agenda in the region.
France has the same lever it has with Eastern Europe - the ability to deny them EU membership. I, personally, think that if the Turks think that France is going to let a non-white, non-Christian country into the EU ever, they're deluding themselves, but they seem to have persuaded themselves that it's possible, and are willing to do almost anything to get it. Since the vote was going to be close anyways the threats (reported by Michael Ledeen among others) would certainly have been enough to sway things. Of course, Chirac's threats against Eastern Europe all by themselves were the act of an enemy country, not a friendly one. > > > > > > What the French government, in its quest to attack > the > > United States in this affair, didn't realize is > that > > American politics are not like French politics. > What > > the people think in the United States has a real > > influence on foreign policy. And the people, > right > > now, are pissed at France. That's not going to go > > away. An entire generation of politically active > > Americans who came of age during this crisis are > going > > to think of France as an enemy of the United > States. > > That is damage that may never be healed. > > Do they consider Germany as an enemy ? > Jean-Marc No, but I think that's correct. Germany is doing this in part because Schroeder dislikes the US (and Fischer is an ex-terrorist, for goodness sake - I don't see why people don't make a bigger deal of that) but far more so because the German people seem to have become devoutly pacifist. Cleo apparently has a sense of humor. They oppose any and all wars - they don't seem motivated by a particular desire to attack the US. France clearly is - no one could argue that France, which is currently intervening in Africa to protect its cocoa crop (for example) is at all a pacifist country. Germany is opposed to war. France is opposed to the United States. There's a clear distinction there. France rejected a compromise resolution _before Iraq did_. It clearly voted in bad faith on 1441. It voted against a UN Resolution _condemning Iraqi human rights abuses_. It consistently undermined and weakened the sanctions regime. It voted to declare Iraq free of WMD in 1998. Now, unless you want to posit a deep and abiding French affection for Saddam Hussein (possible, but I'm genuinely trying to be generous) the most logical explanation for this is a coherent French plan to weaken the United States as much as possible. That si what your enemies do to you, not your friends. Gautam __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more http://tax.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
