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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: steve dietrich who wrote (637428)	10/4/2004 8:47:27 AM
From: PROLIFE	Respond to of 769670

IRAQ ALLIES-OOPS By JOHN J. MILLER & MARK MOLESKY October 4, 2004 -- WAVER as he might on ev erything else, when it comes to the question of America's allies, John Kerry has been a model of steadiness. "We need a president who has the credibility to bring the allies back to the table," he said in last week's debate, "and to do what's necessary to make it so America isn't doing this alone." When Kerry speaks of allies, he doesn't mean that the United States merely requires more of them: The coalition in Iraq now is as numerous as the one President Bush's father organized to force Iraqi troops from Kuwait in 1991. Kerry is really saying that the United States also needs better allies — specifically France and Germany. But could a President Kerry succeed in bringing the French and the Germans "back to the table"? He would no doubt try. Germany's Der Spiegel magazine recently reported that Richard Holbrooke, a leading candidate for secretary of state in a Kerry administration, promised German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that he and French President Jacques Chirac would be the first foreign dignitaries invited to the White House in 2005. They won't be eager guests. Schroeder's response to news of Kerry's intention: "I was afraid of that," he said, knowing that he doesn't intend to give Kerry the military or financial assistance the new president would seek from him. America, Kerry complains, is shouldering 90 percent of the costs and the casualties in Iraq (a figure that excludes Iraq's own costs and casualties). Yet the French and the Germans have made abundantly clear that they won't be throwing their men or materiel into the mix. "As everyone knows, France did not approve of the conditions in which the conflict was unleashed," French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier told the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 23. "Neither today nor tomorrow will it commit itself militarily in Iraq." German foreign-policy official Gert Weisskirchen has said much the same thing: "I cannot imagine that there will be any change in our decision not to send troops, whoever becomes president." Why this reluctance? Two main reasons. First, domestic politics: Both Schroeder and Chirac have promised their voters repeatedly that they won't get involved in Iraq. Sen. Kerry may see no problem with sudden reversals of opinion, but the French and German leaders know they'd pay dearly at the polls if they sent so much as a handful of traffic cops into Baghdad's Green Zone. Second, and more important: Their fundamental difference lies not with the Bush administration, but with U.S. foreign policy broadly understood. At the core of the Chirac/Schroeder geopolitical outlook is not the thankful belief that America is the world's only superpower, but the regretful notion that it is an out-of-control "hyperpower" (as former French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine memorably put it). The United States and its influence, in this view, must be balanced — "balanced," being a euphemism for opposed. This helps explain Barnier's remarks last week, when he said that France will attend a proposed conference on the future of Iraq only if the complete withdrawal of foreign troops is a formal topic for discussion and the negotiations include "all political forces" in Iraq, "including those who have chosen the path of armed resistance." Kerry may want to bring the French to the table, but guess who's coming to dinner with them: terrorists and rebels now attacking U.S. soldiers and slaughtering Iraqi citizens. Chirac and Barnier, in short, want a recipe for failure: An international conference that either flunks Kerry's "global test" because of France's refusal to attend, or one that features the credentialed henchmen of Muqtada al-Sadr demanding resolutions for the immediate removal of American troops from Iraq. "Where's the backbone of France?" Kerry asked seven years ago, when France was undercutting a U.N. Security Council resolution on weapons inspectors in Iraq. If the senator wins on Nov. 2, he may make the unpleasant discovery that when it comes to aggravating the United States, the French have spines of steel. nypost.com