-Caveat Lector- Go To Original http://truthout.org/docs_02/021703E.htm Thirteen French Heavyweights Weigh in on the War Le Monde | 15.02.03
The following is compilation of opinions concerning the prospects for war by 13 of France's leading commentators. "Going to War Now Would Be Stupid'' -- Pierre Gilles de Gennes Is a new war against Iraq justified? "Saddam Hussein is certainly a dictator of the worst sort and a repeat user of chemical weapons. However the occupation of Iraq by the United States will eventually create a pan-Arab insurrectionary incubator well beyond anything that we know. The Middle East will be totally destabilized. The countries now close to the West are at risk of swinging against us and in every Arab country the moderates risk being reduced to silence. The resurgence of the Kurds will push Turkey towards a formidable repression. We in the West will find ourselves plunged into an immense, incoherent, and enduring battle. Making war on Iraq today would be stupid." Do you approve of the French position? "I do not wish to respond to the question of whether I approve of France's current position." "One Should Distrust Crusades!" -- Pierre Berge | AFP Is a new war against Iraq justified? "George W. Bush, barely elected, saw his popularity, up until then in decline; improve after the attacks of September 11 2001. He believes that there is only one step from Bin Laden to Saddam Hussein, a step he dreams of taking. When France participated in the Gulf War, it was in order not to be absent from the negotiating table. We know what happened: we weren't invited to the negotiating table. Why shouldn't Mr. Bush declare war? But he doesn't ask our opinion, even less our agreement, because once again we will be left out of the room. One should distrust crusades: with good intentions they can turn the world inside out. Oh yes, we should be at ease if there weren't quite so much oil in Iraq, if Bush The Valiant were to go after North Korea or Pakistan. However these countries don't possess those famous reserves." "War is the Worst of Solutions" -- Jean d'Ormesson | AFP Is a new war against Iraq justified? "I don't know. However, I do believe it should not be waged. There are preventative wars that could be justified. I have never ceased to regret that France and England failed to attack Hitler's Germany in 1936, or better yet, in 1935, or still better, 1934. In 1938 I despised the Munich signatories. But it was already too late. The regime of Saddam Hussein is a disgrace. That of North Korea and its ridiculous bloody dictators also. I have no doubt about North Korea's capabilities for mass destruction. Nobody attacks them. There is a doubt about Iraq. War is the worst of solutions and all the others have their dangers." Do you approve of the French position? "Saddam Hussein must be delighted to see the divide that has been dug between one part of Europe and the other. And Bin Laden also. What a mess! Whatever my reservations with regard to George Bush's policies, I prefer Bush to Saddam Hussein, to Bin Laden, and even, I admit it, to Putin. I approve of the French policy to seek a peaceful solution, but I hope the differences with Washington do not finish in a break. We differ with regard to methods, not the essence. Nevertheless the Americans should not slide too openly from a cult of democracy to the practice of an Empire." "The consequences of this war are incalculable" -- Philippe Caub�re | AFP Is a new war against Iraq justified? "Even if I suffer a little from the banality of what I may think, I say no, obviously no, a new war against Iraq is not justified. I was a partisan of the Gulf War because I saw a dictator invade another country. It seemed legitimate and logical to intervene. Afterward, I was sorry. Today, one can no longer believe in a necessity justified by the fact Saddam is a dictator. It is said that war is a continuation of politics. There it's no longer even politics. It's petroleum. It is so obvious that war is willed for that reason! The poverty of American arguments should make us suspicious. Furthermore, the consequences of this war are incalculable. It risks killing us, stuck in oil, and it arms the fundamentalists." Do you approve of the French position? "Yes, without reservation. I've heard it said that France will change direction at the last moment. I hope it's not so. I wouldn't want to discourage the ambassadors and the politicians who have staked out a hard position and who begin to win. I don't forget the huge role of French public opinion in this policy. That's what's decided the anti-war position." "One Must Avoid Cartoon Judgments" -- Thierry Desmarest | AFP Is a new war against Iraq justified? "The situation in which Iraq finds itself after ten years is very worrying; there has been a real disruption of the social and economic fabric of the country. This situation must end soon. The best is to try to organize disarmament peacefully, but that demands a certain level of international pressure. As long as there is no specific risk of the use of weapons of mass destruction, recourse to war seems to me to create more risks that solve problems." Do you approve of the French position? "I believe that the French government has done well to emphasize that war in Iraq could have destabilizing effects on many other countries of the Middle East, already shaken by the fact that so many of the actors in the September 11 attacks were their citizens, and shaken still more by the impasse of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But one can also fear repercussions in the Islamic world in general, in South-East Asia, in North Africa, and in Western countries. We must try to share this sense of the risks of destabilization as widely as possible. Among other things, we should avoid cartoon judgments on the positions taken on both sides of the Atlantic. But I know that's easier said than done." "No One Can Want a War" -- Georges Kiejman | AFP Is a new war against Iraq justified? "No one can want a war. Should we make an exception for Iraq? No. However, I am not convinced by any of the reasons adduced by those who express this refusal. There are other dictators besides Saddam Hussein. Is that a reason to accommodate his regime? The Iraqi people would be the first victim. Today who does what for the Iraqi people? The nuisance capability of Saddam has been insufficiently demonstrated. What do the Iranians, the Kurds, the Iraqis themselves think of that? An intervention against Iraq will upset the structures of the Arab world. Do they deserve to be maintained as they are? I hope the menace of a war is sufficiently credible to convince Saddam Hussein to prefer to save his skin rather than lose it in a bunker. No to the war. Yes to the possibility that it take place." Do you approve of the French position? "I don't approve of French policy any more than I did when it was more nuanced. I approve of it all the less because I am convinced that France will never veto American intervention. In the meantime, we will be distanced from the United States, which will be an historical ingratitude and a misapprehension of reality: whatever its mistakes, the United States remains the only guarantor of an imperfect, but perfectible and livable world. Unless one believes in the end of history, which I do not." "The Furious Obstinacy of the United states is Not Justified" -- Daniel Costantini | AFP Is a new war against Iraq justified? "As the proverb says, "When a man wants to kill his dog, he says it has rabies''. The furious obstinacy of the United States against Iraq is not justified by the situation. Unless it hides the desire of a country in the grip of economic difficulty to relaunch its petroleum activities in the Gulf region. How could a country put to fire and bloodied by the Gulf War, which suffers the embargo, possibly succeed in hiding the military arsenal it is accused of possessing by the United States? The first war against Iraq had the impact only of destroying the Iraqi people. Not only did it not prevent the development of terrorism and fundamentalism, but perhaps the events of September 11 actually developed from the ruins of Baghdad." Do you approve of the French position? "France's position is composed of compromise and conviction. President Chirac tries to play the supplest diplomatic game possible by humoring our historic allies the Americans and by maintaining refusal of war with the Germans. It's a good tack now, but it must be held in all tides and storms. If a conflict erupts, we have to express a minimal solidarity with the Americans. But for now, France and Germany must pursue their efforts to avoid it..." "We Must Know How to Resist" -- Juliette Greco | AFP Is a new war against Iraq justified? "I cannot favor this war. In the first place because I have no certainty, no proof substantiating the arguments advanced by the Americans to unleash it. And, even if one should prove that Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction, I remain perplexed before the necessity of immediately killing thousands of people- notably Americans and Iraqis- with those same weapons. I am not persuaded in spite of what one reads in the American press against the French position and that of other countries hostile to war, that the majority of the American people approve of this hypothetical "preventative war.'' Meanwhile such a war, should it take place, risks having dramatic consequences for the American people- even more than the Gulf War, with its veterans handicapped for life, whom we have recently witnessed- and should not be decided by the President of the United States against the opinion of a huge part of the American people." Do you approve of the French position? "I approve of the French position. We must know how to resist. To resist the American will, which is first of all that of a President who cares most about his own image and who is anxious to demonstrate and prove his power to himself, to his family, to Americans and the whole world." "War Only Kills the Poor" -- Isabelle Autissier | AFP Is a new war against Iraq justified? "The last time war was declared on Iraq, we took the stick in the third stage of a worldwide relay race. We were in an atmosphere of solidarity between the runners of more than ten different nationalities. The war, even at a distance, cracked that view of the world a little. We know that that conflict only encouraged terrorism. People always have limited perspective. Saddam, bloody dictator, is a pitiable excuse for a unilateral vision of the world. One hides poorly the oil calculations, or worse, the idea that the planet can be restructured according to one's own design. Those who declare war today brought down Allende's Chili in a blood bath, armed the Taliban against Massoud. As for the UN resolutions, they are applied when convenient ask Sharon!" Do you approve of the French position? "France today takes the only reasonable position, even if one fears we may finish by giving in to the War Sirens to save our piece of the cake. Disarm a dangerous dictator, yes! One could ask how one separates the dangerous dictators from those who aren't, see North Korea or Pakistan It would be an honor for "the old Europe'' to prove that other ways are possible and that it has the youth of heart and the imagination of spirit to invent them. War only kills the poor. It calls for revenge. It would be a calamity for everyone." "Bush is a Friend who Wants to Make a Stupid Mistake." -- Luc Montagnier | AFP Is a new war against Iraq justified? "Who would profit from such a conflict? All those who would have a direct interest in a military escalation, in the multiplication of terrorist attacks. If bombs are launched at Iraq, the likelihood is that others will be launched elsewhere. Our international scientific community is unable to provide objective proof of the reality of Iraq's possession of biological or chemical weapons of mass destruction. Such weapons are easily hidden. Do smallpox virus stocks exist on Iraqi soil? We, virologists, are unable to reply, even if it is well established that before the �80s exchanges of virological stocks which could retain all their virulence today could have taken place." Do you approve of the French position? "We must see the United States as an outpost of Europe. We have the same values; we are philosophically and culturally on the same side. I consider it indispensable that the French diplomatic line not lose sight of the fact that George Bush is, for us, a friend, a friend who wants to make a stupid mistake, a friend to whom we must speak the truth precisely to prevent that mistake. The world is divided more and more into big geopolitical spheres: the West, China, the Arab world. But only one civilization maintains universal values, those of the rights of man: our own." "The Americans are Caught in Their Own Trap" -- David Douillet | AFP Is a new war against Iraq justified? "Unfortunately, I have the impression- given the forces which America has deployed- that it would be ridiculous to imagine that war is not inevitable. I say "unfortunately'' because I am against such an intervention. The United States give the impression of wanting to show that, even after September 11 2001, they remain the strongest. In judo, when one adopts a stance that consists of flexing the muscles, one is likely to be struck again. Today, the Americans can no longer go backwards: this war, they have to pursue it, without which they lose all credibility. They are caught in their own trap." Do you approve of the French position? "I am of the same opinion as the majority of the French and of our politicians: we must use all means to avoid the war. First pursue the investigations of the UN experts. To bring down a dictator, they will hit his people. Aren't there other solutions, other ways of incapacitating this man? The problem with the French position is its ambiguity. As an ally of the United States, France has obligations. However, in the case of a conflict, France will have to decide whether to go in or not. To affirm France's grandeur, I think we must decide not to go there. " "War Cannot Be Justified" -- Axel Kahn | AFP Is a new war against Iraq justified? "The war is not justified. Saddam Hussein is an abominable dictator, but he clearly is not the only one. There are other abominable dictators, but they are not all the head of a state which possesses a strategic product for the United States of America. In these conditions, the war cannot be justified." Do you approve of the French position? "I approve totally of the French and German position, knowing very well that it is extremely dangerous, particularly on the economic level. Essentially the world economy functions under American rules. By their political and economic weight, the United States possess altogether considerable pressure powers and are capable of anything in a their economic war. It may be that revenge measures will be taken against countries that don't state their fidelity to the American position. The terrible character of economic interdependence makes it costly also for political independence. Apart from the temptation of planting themselves durably in the Middle East, the United States may try, given this crisis, to destroy the dynamic of Europe. Were that to occur, it would permit the United States to protect themselves from the emergence of an economic and strategic competitor." "There's a Sort of Infantilization of Politics" -- Claude Lanzmann | AFP Is a new war against Iraq justified? "I am against this war. Saddam Hussein is a massacrer; what he inflicted on the Kurds is an atrocity. However, I can hardly believe today that the Iraqi dictator represents a real threat for the world. There is a sort of infantilization of politics. The United States behaves like a planetary policeman, handing out punishments- slaps, they say- to countries as though it were a question of children that have to be disciplined. And, of course, they never take on the powerful, those who razed Groznyy, for example. In spite of the precision of bombing, there will be thousands of "collateral'' deaths: it bothers me that to get rid of a dictator, we have to wreck a country. After the Shoah, it was said: "never again". The concept of humanitarian interference was born from that, with all the perverse effects that the mix of humanitarianism and war must bring forth. Even Israel, which during the Gulf War ( I was there, it was through CNN that we learned a Scud had fallen several kilometers away- I formulated it this way: the place of the event is never the place where the event takes place) stayed fully armed, does not want this conflict. And besides, I don't like the movements of Bush's chin and this war announced like the execution of those who await the inevitable in the death row cells of American prisons." Do you approve of the French position? "I find that overall France's government is right." (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.) � : t r u t h o u t 2002 | t r u t h o u t | forum | issues | editorial | letters | donate | contact | | voting rights | environment | budget | children | politics | indigenous survival | energy | | defense | health | economy | human rights | labor | trade | women | reform | global | Forwarded for your information. 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