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Well-Known Member
MAR. 7, 2003: FRIENDS & ALLIES
Press Conference
Good press conference! Bush looked good and sounded calm. He may not have persuaded the anti-American European Left. But he certainly dropped a clanger on the government of France. There would, he said, be no postponement of the UN vote. The hope that many French diplomats have that the vote might somehow be circumvented, sparing France the horrible choice to veto or to acquiesce – has been removed. Bush said that the choice between war and peace remains with Saddam. He could equally well have said that the choice to preserve or damage the American-French alliance rests with France.
I was struck by the unusual sameness of the questions asked at the conference. Again and again journalists pressed the point about Bush’s alleged mishandling of the diplomacy of the war. I can’t understand why they bother: What’s he going to say – “You’re right, I admit it, I messed up?”
On the other hand – and here we bump up against the limits of the on-the-record, televised press conference – he could hardly answer the question honestly, could he: “Look, friends, the governments we are disagreeing with actively support Saddam Hussein’s rule. It’s not bad diplomacy that has brought us to this impasse – it is the ugly truth that France and Russia genuinely prefer Saddam to the less horrific alternatives. We’ve been trying to change their minds about that for 12 years under three different presidents. They can’t be convinced because they don’t want to be convinced.”
And if the press doubted the answer, Bush might have directed them to this amazing headline in today's Washington Times: "Iraq Strengthens Air Force with French Parts."
Speaking of France
The very interesting British magazine Prospect has a fascinating vignette of France in its current issue (available online only to subscribers).
“A Lyon magazine was recently fined ... for publishing a critical opinion of Beaujolais.”
Sales of Beaujolais wine, you see, are declining. “To find out why, a local magazine interviewed a professional wine taster .... Although complimentary about Beaujolais crus [the fancier wines], he said Beaujolais primeur [the everyday stuff] was ‘a sort of lightly fermented and alcoholised fruit juice.’”
The taster then compounded his offense by telling the magazine that he opposed a request from the Beaujolais growers for government aid. “‘They were only interested in making money, knowing full well they were marketing a vin de merde.’”
For these two “denigrating statements,” the Lyons magazine was whacked for the equivalent of a quarter of a million dollars. The judge in the case explained that the the taster and the journalist who interviewed him “went beyond the acceptable limits of their social functions as, respectively, critic and supplier of information.”
Tom King, who retells the story, quotes a recent report by the French Academy of Moral and Political Science: “‘Our [French] culture is frankly opposed to freedom of the press.’” For Iraqis too.
On the Road Again
My weather-cancelled Minneapolis trip is back on. I return to the Twin Cities on Monday and Tuesday of next week. If you live in the vicinity and have time and interest, I hope you will come out either to Bound To Be Read books in St. Paul – or else the lunch and the speech sponsored by the Center for the American Experiment (www.amexp.org). On the eve of war, I will try to answer some of the hard questions about this president – and explain as best I can why I believe he’s doing the right things in the right way.
http://www.nationalreview.com/frum/diary030703.asp
Press Conference
Good press conference! Bush looked good and sounded calm. He may not have persuaded the anti-American European Left. But he certainly dropped a clanger on the government of France. There would, he said, be no postponement of the UN vote. The hope that many French diplomats have that the vote might somehow be circumvented, sparing France the horrible choice to veto or to acquiesce – has been removed. Bush said that the choice between war and peace remains with Saddam. He could equally well have said that the choice to preserve or damage the American-French alliance rests with France.
I was struck by the unusual sameness of the questions asked at the conference. Again and again journalists pressed the point about Bush’s alleged mishandling of the diplomacy of the war. I can’t understand why they bother: What’s he going to say – “You’re right, I admit it, I messed up?”
On the other hand – and here we bump up against the limits of the on-the-record, televised press conference – he could hardly answer the question honestly, could he: “Look, friends, the governments we are disagreeing with actively support Saddam Hussein’s rule. It’s not bad diplomacy that has brought us to this impasse – it is the ugly truth that France and Russia genuinely prefer Saddam to the less horrific alternatives. We’ve been trying to change their minds about that for 12 years under three different presidents. They can’t be convinced because they don’t want to be convinced.”
And if the press doubted the answer, Bush might have directed them to this amazing headline in today's Washington Times: "Iraq Strengthens Air Force with French Parts."
Speaking of France
The very interesting British magazine Prospect has a fascinating vignette of France in its current issue (available online only to subscribers).
“A Lyon magazine was recently fined ... for publishing a critical opinion of Beaujolais.”
Sales of Beaujolais wine, you see, are declining. “To find out why, a local magazine interviewed a professional wine taster .... Although complimentary about Beaujolais crus [the fancier wines], he said Beaujolais primeur [the everyday stuff] was ‘a sort of lightly fermented and alcoholised fruit juice.’”
The taster then compounded his offense by telling the magazine that he opposed a request from the Beaujolais growers for government aid. “‘They were only interested in making money, knowing full well they were marketing a vin de merde.’”
For these two “denigrating statements,” the Lyons magazine was whacked for the equivalent of a quarter of a million dollars. The judge in the case explained that the the taster and the journalist who interviewed him “went beyond the acceptable limits of their social functions as, respectively, critic and supplier of information.”
Tom King, who retells the story, quotes a recent report by the French Academy of Moral and Political Science: “‘Our [French] culture is frankly opposed to freedom of the press.’” For Iraqis too.
On the Road Again
My weather-cancelled Minneapolis trip is back on. I return to the Twin Cities on Monday and Tuesday of next week. If you live in the vicinity and have time and interest, I hope you will come out either to Bound To Be Read books in St. Paul – or else the lunch and the speech sponsored by the Center for the American Experiment (www.amexp.org). On the eve of war, I will try to answer some of the hard questions about this president – and explain as best I can why I believe he’s doing the right things in the right way.
http://www.nationalreview.com/frum/diary030703.asp
