Re: multilateralism equals junior partners with US imperi alism

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Title: RE: [PEN-L] multilateralism equals junior partners with US imperialism

This article is too focused on the policies of the French elite. That elite can't act in a vaccuum. To quote a column by Marc Cooper in the March 7-13, 2003 L.A. WEEKLY,  >As one very smart colleague of mine put it in regard to French resolve, "After President Chirac opportunistically climbed up the flagpole of principle, he found a lot of other folks scurrying up behind him blocking his way down."< The French people kept Chirac from finking out in his opposition to Dubya's splendid little war.

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Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine

 
> http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/Story
> FT/FullStory&c
> =StoryFT&cid=1054416383850
>
> Chirac should be more cynical
> By François Heisbourg
> Published: June 3 2003 20:32 | Last Updated: June 3 2003 20:32
>
> In the run-up to the Iraqi conflict, France thwarted the
> US-led attempt to
> convince the United Nations Security Council to authorise the
> opening of
> hostilities. Although Jacques Chirac's government recognises
> that the damage
> to the transatlantic relationship must be repaired, it is a sense of
> diplomatic victory that informs France's postwar choices, not
> a feeling of
> failure. A creeping realisation of the costs has not turned
> popular or elite
> opinion against the government's pre-war stance, despite some pointed
> questioning by French business.
>