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France Tries to Patch Up Ties with U.S.
U.S. President George Bush is known for making politics personal. With his emphasis on loyalty, crossing the president has become a risky endeavor in Washington and, as the Iraq crisis has shown, even beyond Americaâs shores. With the support of the leaders of Germany and Russia, French President Jacques Chirac drew Bushâs ire in the prelude to war by vowing to veto any U.N. resolution authorizing military action. With the fall of Baghdad, Chirac has since made plenty of conciliatory noises towards the United States, including backing a U.S. initiative to end U.N. sanctions against Iraq. But Bush appears to have singled out Paris for special retribution, even though Berlin and Moscow were equally outspoken critics of the war. âI doubt heâll be coming to the ranch any time soon,â Bush told U.S. television station NBC on Friday, making clear Chirac remained persona non grata.The ranch is for friends only, I don't think Putin will be asked back either. The U.S. Defense Department on Thursday said it would scale back American participation at the Paris Air Show in what is being interpreted as a hardly concealed snub. Only six aircraft would be displayed at the show this June instead of 11 last time round, a Pentagon spokesman said. "This is senior Department of Defense officials' way of expressing their displeasure with French government policy on Iraq," Joel Johnson, vice president of international affairs for the U.S. Aerospace Industry Association told the Reuters news agency. Word is that no military officer over the grade of Colonel is going to be allowed to attend. That the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were annoyed at the French has long been no secret. But perhaps more ominously, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell â the one Bush administration member once considered as less interested in pursuing retaliation against France â said this week that Paris could expect to suffer the consequences of having opposed Washington. Colin Powell doesn't like being stabbed in the back. Posted by: Steve 2003-04-25 |
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