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Home Front: Politix
French FM makes lightning visit to US
2004-12-16
From the Rantburg Diplomacy Desk:
France's Foreign Minister Michel Barnier was due [in Washington] Wednesday for the first visit by a senior Paris official since President George W. Bush was re-elected and pledged to repair US alliances bruised by Iraq war. Barnier, whose country spearheaded opposition to the war, was flying in for a lightning round of talks with outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell and his designated successor, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
Hmmm...Kofi's in town too.
With Bush due to visit Europe in February on a high-profile fence-mending tour,
Good fences make good neighbours. Or so they say.
the French press has been rife with speculation that Barnier might be carrying an invitation from President Jacques Chirac to come to Paris. But French foreign ministry officials said they had no knowledge of any such invitation, although they did not specifically rule out the possibility. Barnier, who has had ample occasion to see Powell at a flurry of international conferences in recent weeks, was making his first bilateral visit to the United States since becoming foreign minister on March 31. He was expected to fly back on Thursday to attend a European Union summit in Brussels.
"And boy, will my arms be tired!"
Armed with a new four-year mandate, Bush has made it clear that any rapprochement would have to be on US terms. He stood by his right to take unilateral, pre-emptive military action if American security interests were threatened. But Barnier said this week that while renewing trans-Atlantic links was of fundamental importance, the relationship between Washington and its oldest ally must be balanced. "Alliance does not mean allegiance," he said in an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien. "We listen to each other, respect each other, agree sometimes and we can also have differing analyses."

Still, there has been some encouraging evidence of cooperation. France agreed to write off a substantial portion of the debt it was owed by Iraq while the United States kept its mouth shut and looked the other way backed Paris in the crisis over the Ivory Coast. Barnier could use his talks in Washington to promote his call for an early international summit on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an acceleration of efforts to reach a final solution. But Bush, who discussed the Middle East last month here with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, responded cautiously to prospects for holding an international conference anytime soon. "I'm all for conferences, just so long as the conferences produce something," he said.
You tell 'em, Dubya!
Posted by:Seafarious

#18  Last I heard, Bush will not be visiting Phrawnce.
Posted by: .com   2004-12-16 8:55:30 PM  

#17  No time to stop in France. Too busy in Poland.

If there's to be a stop in any of the weasel countries, it should be in Germany.
Posted by: lex   2004-12-16 6:56:27 PM  

#16  We can be polite and all that, but I would STRONGLY REJECT any possibility of a visit by the US President to France, except for a visit to Normandy or other Allied grave site. We have nothing to say. Chiraq will just use us to further his agenda. We do not have to put up with his crap. Period.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2004-12-16 6:27:24 PM  

#15  Something about the oil for food scandal flushing out the guilty ones. Heh.
Posted by: crazyhorse   2004-12-16 1:21:25 PM  

#14  I'm halfway through reading "Our Oldest Enemy" right now. If anyone seriously believes that France is our oldest friend after reading that, they need their heads examined. No wonder the French hate that book.
Posted by: Desert Blondie   2004-12-16 11:54:17 AM  

#13  --With Bush due to visit Europe in February on a high-profile fence-mending tour,

Good fences make good neighbours. Or so they say.--


This is my land, that is your land, and I'll thank you to stay on your side of the fence.

(written by a columnist after 9/11 when discussing changing the National Anthem to something else - This Land by the unapologetic Guthrie)
Posted by: anonymous2U   2004-12-16 11:06:32 AM  

#12  Has anyone seen Jim Baker and his briefcase?
Posted by: Classical_Liberal   2004-12-16 10:49:55 AM  

#11  "Alliance does not mean allegiance," he said in an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien. "We listen to each other, respect each other, agree sometimes and we can also have differing analyses."


"And, sometimes, we may sell weapons to the enemy and attempt to dissuade cooperation among allied countries. Is this not how allies treat each other?"
Posted by: BH   2004-12-16 10:12:15 AM  

#10  the French press has been rife with speculation that Barnier might be carrying an invitation from President Jacques Chirac to come to Paris

No thanks, not necessary. Laura shops online.
Posted by: lex   2004-12-16 10:06:04 AM  

#9  Barnier could use his talks in Washington to promote his call for an early international summit on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an acceleration of efforts to reach a final solution.

Ah, yes, the "final solution" is an unfortunate term for them to use. However, I would note that Arafish did pass away to his 72 raisins in a FRENCH hospital. Maybe the French should be thanked to at least open up a POSSIBILITY of a solution to Israel/Paleos.
Posted by: BA   2004-12-16 9:10:53 AM  

#8  He can cool his heels in Powell's lobby for an hour or two and then watch the ambassador from Ivory Coast come waltzing in ahead of him.
Posted by: Tom   2004-12-16 7:56:53 AM  

#7  As far as I am concerned he should be welcomed like you would welcome a steaming pile of feces on your brand new living room carpet.

If they want to be "freinds" then they must pay. Pay dearly and publicly for their perfidy.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom   2004-12-16 3:51:47 AM  

#6  And fuck the ditzy fact-challenged meme-ridden gullible / complicit / disingenuous press.

Wow. Extremely well said. And this article was far, far from the worst bit of this we've seen for the last few years.
Posted by: Verlaine   2004-12-16 1:38:16 AM  

#5  pledged to repair US alliances bruised by Iraq war.

bruised? I'd say more like decapitated

the relationship between Washington and its oldest ally must be balanced
gag! How insulting!

Ok, yeah..thanks for your assistance at Yorktown. Your welcome for our (much greater) assistance in WWII.

That's the thing that sucks about getting old, the inevitable consequence is death.
Posted by: 2b   2004-12-16 1:06:35 AM  

#4  Outstanding rant, .com, and totally on target. Barnier's comments were for a French audience, in a French paper. He probably just told them to cut 'n' paste the party line. Not that the story would be reported much differently in the NYT.

I'm just fascinated by the speed of his visit, especially with Kofi in town, where the stories all stress that he is NOT here to discuss the oil-for-weasels issue. Nope, definitely NOT on the agenda. Not at all. Not even a whisper.

I'll post something about that later today. It's late now.
Posted by: Seafarious   2004-12-16 12:55:59 AM  

#3  "repair US alliances bruised by Iraq war"

Strawman argument which should generate a hail of jeers every time it's used. In France and Germany, Chirac and Schröder cravenly used anti-Americanism as their campaign hooks and demonized Bush & America well before there was an Iraq war. They did the bending and breaking of the "alliances" which, upon any serious reflection, must be viewed as diplo bullshit, a mere habitual reference devoid of substance for some time, now. As a test of any bidirectional alliance, let's figure out when the last time was that the US asked of either government any action (that was granted) which was not obviously in the best interests of the so-called ally? A hell of a long time ago, I'd wager. The war itself was just the symbol, the symptom, not the disease - the anti-Americanism, already a shop-worn time-honored well-polished fuckwit socialist theme, had been actively kept alive and thus already present - these assholes saw fit to employ the fears for crass political and personal gain and built a fire under it. They rendered the "alliances" null, void, and moot. Context. Bush checked all the boxes and they cut him off at the knees.

Regards any visits by representatives of either the Chirac or Schröder regimes, send 'em home... in a bag.

I don't have any strong feelings about it, of course, but... Fuck Chirac. Fuck Schröder. Fuck the Chocolate-Makers. And fuck the ditzy fact-challenged meme-ridden gullible / complicit / disingenuous press. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Posted by: .com   2004-12-16 12:42:48 AM  

#2  acceleration of efforts to reach a final solution. Unfortunate turn of phrase.
Posted by: phil_b   2004-12-16 12:26:37 AM  

#1  Who was that masked man?...
Posted by: mojo   2004-12-16 12:15:41 AM  

00:01