HeXp£Øi±
Well-Known Member
It seems fairly clear that George W. Bush's talk on Sunday of a global "moment of truth" portends a coming war with Iraq. But the president, along with his vice president and secretary of state, who took to the airwaves this Sunday, also left no doubt about their deep bitterness toward another troublesome nation: France.
Emerging from months of conspicuously low visibility, Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on "Face the Nation" and "Meet the Press" to once again make the case for war. It was probably a sign of imminent combat that over the course of the morning--including an entire hour with Russert--Cheney had virtually nothing new to say about our Iraq policy. No ideas about a diplomatic compromise, no talk of extended deadlines, no suggestion that events in Iraq might change the administration's course. "I am hard-put to say what it is [Saddam] could do with credibility at this stage that would alter the outcome," Cheney told NBC's Tim Russert on "Meet the Press."
Cheney was asked on both shows about the last-minute French proposal, floated this weekend by Jacques Chirac, to give Iraq 30 more days to comply with weapons inspectors. Both times he rattled off an impressively detailed case against the credibility of the French when it comes to disarming Iraq. France, he explained, opposed a 1995 U.N. resolution finding Iraq in material breach; a 1996 resolution condemning the massacre of the Kurds; a 1997 attempt to block travel by Iraqi intelligence and military officials; and the 1999 creation of the UNMOVIC weapons-inspection regime. The French also declared in 1998 that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction, Cheney said. "Given that pattern of behavior," Cheney told Russert, "I think it's difficult to believe that 30 days or 60 more days are going to change anything." To CBS's Bob Schieffer he was even more succinct: "It's difficult to take the French serious, and believe that this is anything [other] than just further delaying tactics," Cheney scoffed.
Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Colin Powell sounded equally resolute. "I think time is clearly running out" on diplomacy, the secretary of state said. And when Powell was asked about the new French proposal, the administration's resident multilateralist likewise reacted with thinly-veiled contempt. "Do you really think that ... 30 more days would persuade the French?" Powell asked. "The French have made it clear ... they see no logic that would lead to the use of military force." Iraq, Powell added pointedly, "is playing the United Nations, and playing some of our friends in the permanent membership of the Security Council, like a fiddle."
All of which nicely foreshadowed what Bush would say from the Azores this afternoon. Although the president suggested there might be one last chance to make diplomatic progress on Monday, Bush sounded like a man whose patience had run out. And he, too, made a point of singling out the French. When asked about the embarrassing fact that he is now threatening to skip a U.N. vote just a week after vowing that U.N. members would have to "show their cards," Bush responded, "[O]ne country voted ... France showed their cards. After I said what I said, they said they were going to veto anything that held Saddam to account. So cards have been played. And we just have to take an assessment after tomorrow to determine what that card meant." This may be a rather lame explanation. But it's yet another clear sign that, whatever happens in Iraq, the hostilities between the United States and France are already under way.
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=spin&s=crowley031503
Emerging from months of conspicuously low visibility, Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on "Face the Nation" and "Meet the Press" to once again make the case for war. It was probably a sign of imminent combat that over the course of the morning--including an entire hour with Russert--Cheney had virtually nothing new to say about our Iraq policy. No ideas about a diplomatic compromise, no talk of extended deadlines, no suggestion that events in Iraq might change the administration's course. "I am hard-put to say what it is [Saddam] could do with credibility at this stage that would alter the outcome," Cheney told NBC's Tim Russert on "Meet the Press."
Cheney was asked on both shows about the last-minute French proposal, floated this weekend by Jacques Chirac, to give Iraq 30 more days to comply with weapons inspectors. Both times he rattled off an impressively detailed case against the credibility of the French when it comes to disarming Iraq. France, he explained, opposed a 1995 U.N. resolution finding Iraq in material breach; a 1996 resolution condemning the massacre of the Kurds; a 1997 attempt to block travel by Iraqi intelligence and military officials; and the 1999 creation of the UNMOVIC weapons-inspection regime. The French also declared in 1998 that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction, Cheney said. "Given that pattern of behavior," Cheney told Russert, "I think it's difficult to believe that 30 days or 60 more days are going to change anything." To CBS's Bob Schieffer he was even more succinct: "It's difficult to take the French serious, and believe that this is anything [other] than just further delaying tactics," Cheney scoffed.
Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Colin Powell sounded equally resolute. "I think time is clearly running out" on diplomacy, the secretary of state said. And when Powell was asked about the new French proposal, the administration's resident multilateralist likewise reacted with thinly-veiled contempt. "Do you really think that ... 30 more days would persuade the French?" Powell asked. "The French have made it clear ... they see no logic that would lead to the use of military force." Iraq, Powell added pointedly, "is playing the United Nations, and playing some of our friends in the permanent membership of the Security Council, like a fiddle."
All of which nicely foreshadowed what Bush would say from the Azores this afternoon. Although the president suggested there might be one last chance to make diplomatic progress on Monday, Bush sounded like a man whose patience had run out. And he, too, made a point of singling out the French. When asked about the embarrassing fact that he is now threatening to skip a U.N. vote just a week after vowing that U.N. members would have to "show their cards," Bush responded, "[O]ne country voted ... France showed their cards. After I said what I said, they said they were going to veto anything that held Saddam to account. So cards have been played. And we just have to take an assessment after tomorrow to determine what that card meant." This may be a rather lame explanation. But it's yet another clear sign that, whatever happens in Iraq, the hostilities between the United States and France are already under way.
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=spin&s=crowley031503