"how is what US has done any better than what France has done???"
They are both jerks, imo, but the U.S. was in the midst of a cold war in 80s and, Iran and Iraq were fighting to the death. It made sense, at the time, for the U.S. to support Iraq because it couldn't support Iran (hostage incident and all) and it would have done nobody any good for Iraq to fall into the hands of Iran. While France's aim, well I can't say for certain, appears to be largely financial and geopolitics be damned. While you can pull up the odd photo of Rumsfeld together with Saddam in the early 80s, their are a ton of photos of Chirac and Saddam (dating back to 1973) all cozy and smiling at each other sitting on couches or facing each other on fancy armchairs, inspecting factories and on and on... While, I guess, France and the U.S. are equally morally contemptible, I prefer it when governments focus on matters of state and geopolitics like the U.S. did with Iraq, than with what France has done, building a friendly business relationship (don't forget Chirac's own family and relations have benefitted financially from their Saddam connection) that clouds its judgement, imo, and constrains it in speaking out on Iraqi peoples plight. For all the U.S. jibing going on here, I wonder how cozy the Iraqi people will want to be in the future with their oppressors friend France.
Thanks for the Madame X tip. |
