Are their motives in the Security Council evil? I’ve heard they profit from the oil for food program but disarmament, either with or without war will probably result in the lifting of sanctions, which will end the oil for food program. So if france is trying to veto because they benefit under the oil for food program, why did they support resolution 1441, and why are they in favor of disarmament? you’d assume they’d try to oppose disarmament if their motive was oil, as this would cause the sanctions to remain in place.
So are many americans mad because they think Hussein can’t be disarmed without war, and the French are putting us at risk by opposing a resolution validating war or is it because we are arrogant and angered that another country won’t do what we want them to do?
On another topic, whats to stop Iraq from carrying out its WMD programs in other countries that are free from UN inspections? Or funding another countries WMD programs with funds obtained illegally from black market dealings under the sanctions?
That’d be my guess. We’re Americans, dammit! Who do they think they are?! Fine, we’ll rename our fried potato strips and see how they like it! :rolleyes:
The general population ia several years behind me. I hate france for their general air of arrogance as if they were some kind of super species or something. It may just be slowly dawning on other people that here is a country that thinks it has a divine right to power, status and overall respect for… *…I dont have any idea what for. Must be a french thing.
I have to laugh at this. I don’t deny any of it. I just found it ironic…these are the exact reasons why I love the French.
Personally, though, in respose to the OP…the only dislike I have for the French dates back to Napoleonic times. My ancestral history was altered tremendously during that period as my great-great-grandparents were forced to migrate east (from the Alsace region) to avoid being “drafted” to fight Napoleon’s war.
Hey a good whipping boy beats a well thought out response to the alternative point of view that Iraq can and will be contained/disarmed without a fast draw match.
Oh,forgot,since the AlQueda link hasn’t been proven to anybody’s satisfaction,and the Abomb materials undercover report has been shown to be bogus,we ran out of serious counterpoints.
Let’s just stick with the old slogans,that’s sure to sway ‘em.And as life imitates art (or vice versa) todays’ polls show a majority (over 55%) favor war without approval,a swing of some 20%,it’s working.
I’d like to ask any of these fence sitters what particularly brought on this change.New evidence on Iraq’s capabilities/disarming speed?
There’s more,but I’ll stop.Some of today’s more rightist panelists in a couple tv shows have really pissed me off with their pandering to people’s fears of completely unrelated causes.
Without pissing people off by stateing my views on the whole war thing, I just want to say we really are’nt staring to hate France. . . we’ve always hated France. To be fair, France has never really liked us either. Dennis Miller said it best when he said “They [france] must have been throwing it out anyways because I can’t believe they gave us the Statue of Liberty”.
Anyways, I speant about 4 months in France and I can honestly say alot of them don’t like us and I was’nt even walking down the street talking loudly with a pizza in my mouth and farting everywhere I went. Although it might just be in Paris because in the smaller cities, they were alot nicer.
I’d say you just met some Parisians, Thomas. They’re a… particular bunch. Can’t say I have any great experiences with them either, but maybe that’s from being a tourist - they do get overwhelmed a bit, I suppose. But in the rest of France, I haven’t noticed any hostile sentiments to speak of. Of course, I’m not American, but I’d say it’s mainly Parisians that are a tad hostile to foreigners. And I’ll fully admit that my sample size is too small to say anything meaningful: “never judge a country by its taxi drivers”, and all that.
Ah. Well, I’d say it’s a combination of American propaganda (“you’re with us, or you’re against us” comes to mind), and the less than pleasant messenger the French have at their disposal - Jaqcues Chirac. After all, Germany disagrees with the US just as fiercely, but Gerhard Schröder is a very polite and non-confrontational man.
So, annoyance with Chirac, and a rather simplistic approach by the US government and media where “the international community” is concerned.
Actually, as someone else here (whose name I can’t remember but I’ll give full credit to them if anyone can remind me) said, Americans actually love France. That’s why they’re getting so worked up over this disagreement. They’re not upset over Germany or Russia, and not screaming “you’d all be talkin’ Japanese if it wasn’t for us!” at China because they don’t care about the opinions of those countries. It’s France they want. Holland can have protests in the streets, Turkey can reject offers of support, and South Korea can demand that all American bases be withdrawn, and 95% of America won’t bat an eyelash. Let France say no, however, and their are howls of betrayal from coast to coast, while congresscritters demand that the country’s name be stricken from House menus. They act like a love-sick teenager with a crush on an older woman, who throws a tantrum after discovering the object of his affection still thinks of him as a cute little kid.
If the UN were a high school, US and Britain would be the jocks. Germany is the hall monitor because they wanted to teach him a lesson for going to detention too much. Russia is the jock from the rival high school. Canada is that sweet girl next door. Mexico is the girl everyone has slept with. Iraq is the junior gang-banger who brings a gun to school to impress people. China is the lanky akward kid who has’nt grown into himself yet. North Korea is the the weird kid that listens to heavy metal, dresses in black and brings weapons to school because he might actually go nuts. South Korea is the pretty girl who thinks America is such an asshole but loves him all the same. Turkey is the pretty girl that will make out with you but won’t have sex. Isreal is the kid that everyone says, “Hey, are’nt you America’s little brother”? And finally, what about france?
France is the sexually ambiguous Drama/theater arts guy that hangs out with the college kids and is melancholy all the time.
To me Hans Blix is the way-too-old-for-a-high-school-student guy whom everyone thinks is an undercover narc.
I was about to ask why the jocks seemed so upset over what the drama dude thinks, but then I remembered back to my high school days when parties at drama club members’ houses got violently crashed by members of the football team because (in the jocks’ own words) “they think they’re better than us.”
