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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: boris_a who wrote (124027)	1/30/2004 5:38:38 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

If true, UNSC 687 (cited as well) and whole "no automaticity" issue would be just for fun. Actually, without 678, 687 would not have been justified.. After all, 678 was the lifting of UN prohibitions against the use of force, while 687 consisted of the conditions by which a cease fire would be agreed to. So until the terms of 687 are satisfied, and certainly not in the status of "material breach", legally the situation defaults to the status under 678, at the descretion of the members states actually enforcing it. Wrong. France never opposed to "any second" resolution. They asked for more time to verify the WMD issue. They had every good reason not to believe the "clear evidence" presented by Powell. Boris, Chirac can't vote to declare Iraq in "material breach", and later attempt to delay the promise of severe consequences for not coming into compliance, and not be seen as trying to execute a manipulative agenda aimed at protecting French interests in Iraq. Especially when France had contributed VERY LITTLE military support over 12 years related to containing Saddam, nor produced any of the troops that everyone in the UN acknowleged were responsible for Saddam finally caving in to permit UNMOVIC to commence inspections.. Chirac wanted to drag the UN back into the previous chirade of inspections, with few, if any, Iraqi scientists interviewed, or the level of openess and veracity that only now enjoy. The bottom line is that, it would seem, Saddam was STILL directing his scientists to work on WMD programs in direct violation of the cease fire. But it seems it was only due to the corruption and foot-dragging of his scientists that prevented it.. But even David Kay admits that he found biological warfare research continuing.. And this would NEVER HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED under the inspection process touted by France. And finally, since France contributed no troops to the build-up last winter prior to the war, Bush would have been incredibly stupid to permit France to dictate the terms of when and where they are employed. France's chance to protect it's Iraqi interests lapsed when they voted for 1441. The minute they voted for that resolution, the only thing that mattered was full compliance versus coercive measures. Let the French put 100,000 troops out in the desert for 6 months doing nothing but training... That might have made an impact on the situation, and lent Chirac's view more credibility with Bush. Bottom line, the best way to influence events is to participate in them. France, having no troops on the ground, really had no valid input to the vote... In fact, they were content to treat US soldiers as their own personal "foreign legion", except that they didn't even have to pay for it. Hawk