Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > The Academy > Tilted Politics


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 05-21-2003, 06:05 AM   #1 (permalink)
Super Agitator
 
Liquor Dealer's Avatar
 
Location: Just SW of Nowhere!!! In the good old US of A
France /Saudi Arabia - States In Denial

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,87418,00.html

Long after Sept. 11, when it became unmistakable that we had entered an era of serial terrorism, France and Saudi Arabia clung to denial.

Last week showed France perpetuating, and Saudi Arabia perhaps easing, denial.

Each week France's behavior seems so abominable that it couldn't get worse. That's at least what I initially thought, while watching France support and defend Saddam Hussein's regime. The sanctimonious French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin frequently urged the United Nations Security Council to ease, if not remove, economic sanctions against the regime.

The low point got lower when de Villepin blatantly lied to Secretary of State Colin Powell on France's sincerity to enforce U.N. resolution 1441 , which it voted for. De Villepin went even lower when he began cajoling the Germans and other EU states into actively opposing the U.S.-U.K.-Central European stance. And even lower still when he was whirling around the world to strong-arm council mini-members — Cameroon, Guinea and the like — to actively oppose any enforcement of U.N. resolutions.

The latest, and lowest, low point comes now as France — which worked hard to lift Iraqi sanctions under Saddam's oppression — now works to retain Iraqi sanctions after America's liberation. Rather than realize its foolishness — if not viciousness — France clings to denial.

Last week, the French government publicly accused unnamed Bush folks of an "organized campaign of disinformation" to discredit it with the American people — as if Washington's leaks, and not Paris' deeds, were the reason for the explosion of French jokes.

There is, the French claimed, an "ugly campaign to destroy the image of France." Well, that campaign comes from France's actions nowadays, which do "destroy the image of France" as a country promoting liberty, equality and fraternity.

France's "image" was destroyed, for me, when I watched the Security Council cope with Saddam's defiance of its resolution 1441. While the U.S. sought final action, the U.K. issued a final ultimatum. If Iraq did not take several specific actions to comply within several weeks, the council would enforce its 17 resolutions. Paris rejected this fair-minded approach — even before Saddam got the chance to reject it.

What did the French foreign minister offer in its stead? To remedy this crisis by urging that Saddam's toady parliament pass legislation outlawing all weapons of mass destruction.

This — I wondered — is a serious suggestion? To remedy a serious issue, offered by a serious person?

Nothing a Bush Francophile could conceivably leak quietly would be as damaging to France's "image" as what its foreign minister stated clearly before an attentive world.

If the French had their way, the mass and massive graves now daily being dug up around Iraq would instead be daily added to. The jails, long filled with 8, 9, 10, and 11-year-old children — imprisoned for years because of what their parents may have said — would today remain full of these youngsters, who could spend their lives in such squalor and misery.

The behavior of Saudi Arabia has, over the years, been no better than France's. Indeed, it's been worse as they've funded the main terrorist networks. Yet, instead of remaining in denial, the terrorist blasts in Saudi compounds may have jolted the royal family enough to make its members recognize their responsibility.

For decades now there has been a clear understanding, if not an explicit deal: The Saudi royal family would fund the radical Wahhabi sect, in exchange for its believers packaging their terrorist practices strictly as export items. The deal — as of last week — seems off. The terrorists hit Saudis directly. Evidently their vile hatred for the West now extends to their own bankrollers, in the holy kingdom itself.

Since Sept. 11, Saudi officials denied any Saudi involvement with terrorists — despite 15 of 19 of those crashing their planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon being Saudis, despite Usama bin Laden being a Saudi, despite Saudi religious leaders spreading hatred of Christians, Jews and Americans of all kinds.

Now, just maybe, Saudi officials may be getting real — and, perhaps, even a bit responsible. At least, they're no longer in such a state of total denial, as the French are.


Kenneth Adelman is a frequent guest commentator on Fox News, was assistant to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld from 1975 to 1977 and, under President Ronald Reagan, U.N. ambassador and arms-control director. Mr. Adelman is now co-host of TechCentralStation.com.

I realize that many of you are not Fox fans but the credentials of Adelman speak for themselves. Does anyone think the current regime in Saudi can succeed? Does anyone still have doubts about France?
__________________
Life isn't always a bowl of cherries, sometimes it's more like a jar of Jalapenos --- what you say or do today might burn your ass tomorrow!!!
Liquor Dealer is offline  
Old 05-21-2003, 06:43 AM   #2 (permalink)
Cute and Cuddly
 
Location: Teegeeack.
No need to doubt France. They're doing what all larger nations do - they look where the money is. For France, the Hussein regime was not considered a threat, and a good source of income. So why get rid of it?

As for the Saudis - they're walking a tightrope. They can't get rid of the fundamentalists. They can't afford to piss off the US. The regime will continue to try and stay in power, the way it's been doing for a long time. The way to do that is not to take more action, it's taking less action.

As for Bin Laden, I doubt his nationality matters. The Bin Laden family have never been "good muslims". They're better at business and partying. Bin Laden's the black sheep. It would be a mistake to stare oneself blind at his nationality. Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, was British. Nobody brings that up.
__________________
The above was written by a true prophet. Trust me.

"What doesn't kill you, makes you bitter and paranoid". - SB2000

XenuHubbard is offline  
 

Tags
arabia, denial, france, or saudi, states

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 10:16 PM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360