[Marxism] The rapprochement dance of Alphonse and Gaston

[Brian Shannon <brian_shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The comic strip routine of Alphonse and Gaston and the later verbal  
tradition exemplified the idea of characters doing nothing to advance  
or help themselves, due to an excess of politeness towards each  
other. They also volunteered for dangerous action, the politeness in  
those cases being volunteering first for danger. Since neither ever  
did go first, whether for pleasure or danger, the upshot was that  
events overtook them, leading to disaster.

The latest imperialist version shows France and the United States  
purposely delaying the imperialist peace force to allow Israel to  
finish its job in Lebanon, perhaps delaying it indefinitely until  
Israel decides it has destroyed and killed enough to satisfy their  
military needs as well as the most extreme of their electorate. It  
may even result in a new "permanent" buffer zone to be occupied by  
Israel while Alphonse and Gaston perform their dance before world  
while the director chuckles in the background.

The diplomacy of the cartoon figures was dangerous to themselves. The  
new diplomacy endangers everyone else and perhaps in the long run  
themselves as well. But they can't see that and if they do, they  
still can't help themselves.

Now if only Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown would shut  
up. The new Alphonse and Gaston don't want any "spoilers" to give  
away the plot.


Brian Shannon

===================

Aug. 8, 2006, 8:06AM
AP Blog: France, U.S. find common ground

By The Associated Press
© 2006 The Associated Press

— U.N. Chief Correspondent Edith M. Lederer, who has covered the  
world diplomatic beat since September 1998, writes a periodic blog  
about life behind-the-scenes at U.N. headquarters in New York.

___

Saturday, Aug. 5, 2006, 8 p.m.

UNITED NATIONS

The first serious Security Council effort to end the fighting between  
Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon is the result of a French- 
American partnership that for nearly two years has spearheaded U.N.  
efforts to promote Lebanon's independence from its more powerful  
neighbor, Syria.

France and the United States disagreed strongly over going to war  
against Saddam Hussein over Iraq's nuclear weapons program, and  
France's threat to veto a resolution authorizing a war forced the  
U.S. and Britain to drop it in March 2003.

The Americans and British invaded Iraq on a wave of U.S. popular  
support without U.N. backing and toppled Saddam. Anger at the French  
led to boycotts of French wine and cheese, French restaurants, and  
even French fries which were renamed "freedom fries" by Republicans,  
a name that caught on in some eating spots.

But 18 months later, France and the United States were back working  
together in the Security Council to pressure Lebanon to reject a  
second term for its pro-Syrian president and demand an immediate  
withdrawal of all its foreign forces _ an appeal at that time aimed  
more at Syrian troops than Hezbollah militants.

Resolution 1559 was adopted with the minimum nine "yes" votes on  
Sept. 2, 2004, just hours before Lebanon's Parliament was scheduled  
to vote to amend the constitution so that President Emile Lahoud, a  
close friend of Damascus, could keep his job. Parliament defied the  
council, changed the constitution and Lahoud remains Lebanon's  
president.

But France, which was Lebanon's colonial ruler until 1943, and the  
United States, which accuses Syria of being a state sponsor of  
terrorism, kept the pressure on Damascus.

A month later, on Oct. 19, 2004, they joined forces and got the  
Security Council to unanimously approve a presidential statement  
calling on Syria to withdraw its remaining 14,000 troops from Lebanon  
and asking U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to report every six  
months on its compliance.

But it took massive anti-Syrian protests sparked by the Feb. 14, 2005  
assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri for  
Syria to end its 29-year military presence in its smaller neighbor on  
April 26, 2005.

Again, both the United States and France strongly supported a U.N.  
investigation into Hariri's assassination, a probe that is still  
going on.

So when Israel launched an offensive on July 12 after two of its  
soldiers were kidnapped by Hezbollah fighters, it wasn't surprising  
that France and the United States teamed up again to draft a  
resolution that would end hostilities and satisfy both Lebanon and  
Israel, a close U.S. ally.

France circulated an initial draft and then French Ambassador Jean- 
Marc de La Sabliere and U.S. Ambassador John Bolton began intense  
negotiations, which involved their foreign ministers and presidents  
as well.

There were serious differences: the French want a cessation of  
hostilities before anything else happens, but the U.S. wants a halt  
to fighting only as part of a package of steps that include deploying  
peacekeepers.

Bolton tried to downplay any problem, telling reporters last  
Wednesday that the U.S. and France were engaged in an exercise "to  
see if there is a way to bridge these conceptual differences."

"And it's been a discussion that we've had at, I think, very serious  
levels, very intensely, and in real good faith, because it is  
important, I think for long-term stability in the region, for the  
safety and democracy of the people of Lebanon, and the safety of the  
people in Israel, that we reach this conclusion," Bolton said.

De La Salibere told reporters Thursday that he was determined to make  
progress on a resolution and his agenda for the day was to discuss  
the text with Bolton.

"We're certainly getting close" to a U.N. resolution, U.S. Secretary  
of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters Thursday. "We're working  
with the French very closely."

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy agreed: "We are working  
well with the Americans, working night and day."

It turns out that the Franco-American "rapprochement" is not an  
isolated U.N. event.

A Pew Global Attitude poll in June showed 52 percent of Americans  
surveyed now have a favorable impression of the French, nearly double  
the 29 percent in 2003 when the two countries were at odds over Iraq.

Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown stirred controversy by  
suggesting in a Financial Times interview that a resolution on the  
Israeli-Hezbollah conflict shouldn't be co-sponsored by the U.S. and  
close ally Britain, the team that led the war against Iraq.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called his comments  
misguided and misplaced.

But Malloch Brown, in an interview Wednesday on PBS' "The Newshour  
with Jim Lehrer" said what he was doing was "calling for the U.S. to  
reach out to France and others to make sure it was demonstrating a  
broad, multilateral coalition."

Malloch Brown, who is British, said he was also telling his own  
countrymen: "Step aside a bit! Make room for France and some moderate  
Arab governments, like Jordan and Egypt, to be out front with the  
U.S. on this."

But American diplomats remained angry at what they viewed as Malloch  
Brown's unnecessary and unwanted interference in what has by now  
become a routine _ France and the United States working together to  
try to bring peace to Lebanon.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4101627.html



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