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To: Poet who wrote (4902)	2/11/2003 7:42:06 AM
From: thames_sider	Respond to of 7689

I think that's what sticks in my craw. Call it old-fashioned, but I'd rather hear an honest admisssion of double standards - "one law for our friends (of convenience), another for the others". Still, I return to the Kipling and wait for the moron brigade to go the way of Nineveh. I could almost welcome the ruination of the planet just to picture the obliteration of their smugness <gg>

To: Poet who wrote (4902)	2/11/2003 12:01:10 PM
From: Original Mad Dog	Respond to of 7689

Note the highlighted language below: The trio [Germany, France, Belgium] insist the alliance risks undermining U.N. diplomatic efforts to avoid war by planning the dispatch to Turkey of early warning planes, anti-missile batteries and units trained to counter chemical and biological weapons. The best way to avoid war is to make the other side understand in no uncertain terms that they will have no chance of succeeding if there is war. The French and Belgians, of all people, ought to understand what it is like when you try to negotiate without setting up defenses. The year 1940 (actually, a few short weeks in 1940) comes to mind. They tried to negotiate with Germany from a defenseless posture, and Hitler smirked at them and then helped himself to both countries. Now the French and Belgians, world class experts on avoiding war through defenselessness, tell their longstanding ally Turkey to sit there defenseless against an Iraqi missile attack because it will help to avoid war. France and Belgium, you want to be defenseless, go right ahead. Just don't drag the rest of the world with you. NATO Struggles to Resolve Crisis Over Turkey's Request Associated Press BRUSSELS, Belgium -- A second emergency meeting of key North Atlantic Treaty Organization officials was postponed Tuesday while diplomats held "intensive informal negotiations" to resolve the deadlock, a NATO official said. NATO was struggling to find a way out of one of the worst crises in its 53-year history after France, Germany and Belgium vetoed plans to bolster Turkish defenses against a possible Iraqi missile attack. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the delay by NATO's 's North Atlantic Council was "not a bad sign," saying it indicated the alliance's determination to find a solution to the deep divisions over when to start military planning to help Turkey. The council meeting was rescheduled for noon EST. Diplomats said a changing in the wording of the Turkish request for help to stress the need to reassure anxious civilians, rather than prepare for war, could clear the way for a compromise, although they added any final decision could still be delayed until the end of this week. Meanwhile in Iraq, U.N. weapons inspectors paid a surprise visit to a Baghdad missile plant Tuesday as international experts met behind closed doors in New York to assess whether Iraq's short-range missiles can fly farther than permitted under U.N. edicts. In their daily rounds of inspections, conducted despite a Muslim holiday in Iraq, a U.N. team went to the 17th of Nissan factory, which makes molds and casts, including components for Iraq's al-Samoud ballistic missiles, the Information Ministry reported. On Monday, the France, Germany and Belgium in an unprecedented move rebuffed a direct appeal for help from Turkey issued under NATO's mutual defense treaty. The trio insist the alliance risks undermining U.N. diplomatic efforts to avoid war by planning the dispatch to Turkey of early warning planes, anti-missile batteries and units trained to counter chemical and biological weapons. Their stalling outraged the U.S. and other allies, who fear it strikes at the heart of NATO's all-for-one, one-for-all defense pledge and sends a signal of disunity to Saddam Hussein. "NATO is facing a serious crisis," said Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to NATO on Monday. "The core fabric of our alliance is that when one ally is in trouble we all come to its assistance ... all NATO allies must meet that commitment." NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson said Monday he hoped the three holdouts would review their position overnight following a "sobering" analysis by NATO's top military official of the threat to Turkey. "It is a matter of enormous consequences for the alliance," Lord Robertson told reporters after a day of crisis talks Monday failed to end a three-week refusal by the three to start military planning. "The longer this dispute goes on, the worse it is going to be for the alliance and for them," Lord Robertson warned. Copyright (c) 2003 Associated Press URL for this article: online.wsj.com