Abstract

France, the United States & Iraq

The author argues that the United States unfairly blackballed France for its opposition to the Iraq war. The rift between France and the United States that emerged during the run-up to the war in Iraq persists, despite various recent overtures from France. Even though the campaign of anti-French calumnies has ended, France's reputation in the United States has been damaged, and the French position on Iraq is still widely misunderstood. As the exclusion of France and other opponents of the war from postwar reconstruction contracts has shown, those who, in Washington, considered that the French had doubly betrayed the United States--by opposing war that the "senior ally" deemed in its national interest, and by courting votes at the Security Council of the United Nations (as if the United States hadn't been seeking them too)--do not seem to be ready to forgive. Washington was so furious at the French for having rallied enough support on the Security Council to deprive the United States of the legitimation it sought that it encouraged an American boycott of French products, choosing to ignore Germany and remain friendly with Russia (both of which had sided with France), but to punish the French. The French preference for a return, and toughening, of UN inspections over immediate war had three components. One was faith in the ability of these inspections. A second component was France's reluctance to wage a war for regime change. Thirdly, the French--with 5 or 6 million Muslims in France, and long experience of terrorism on French soil--were eager to avoid provoking a real "clash of civilizations" between the Muslim world and the West. Of course, the story of the Iraqi adventure is not over, but so far--despite the capture of Saddam Hussein--the French have been more right than the Bush Administration.