US President Barack Obama has indirectly praised former French president Jacques Chirac's fierce opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq, the online edition of the daily Le Figaro reported on Thursday.
In a letter described by Chirac as 'very nice,' Obama wrote, 'I am certain that we will be able to work together, in the coming four years, in a spirit of peace and friendship to build a safer world.'
The use of the word 'peace' was taken to be an indirect reference to Chirac's stance against the US intervention in Iraq, which Obama had also opposed as senator.
Chirac. The former president of France. Who actually had marches by the French calling him a worm for his backstabbing and double-dealing. Who epitomizes the cheese-eating surrender monkey theme. And Obama pisses off the current President of France to do this.
Incompetence, corruption, stupidity, or a mix of all three? Or is sucking up to Chirac so important to Obama that he'd knowingly screw things up?
Update: Found this at Fausta,
OK, so here are the facts:
- Obama’s letter was sent on March 20, the anniversary of the Iraq war.
- The US still has troops in Iraq defending that country, and those troops are not only fighting but actively engaged in building a civil society.
- Each and any action by the Obama administration will be closely examined. Publicly approaching a private foundation with language that can be interpreted as being against the US presence in Iraq actively undermines that effort.
Additionally,
- Nicolas Sarkozy came to power by running not only against the Socialists, but by actually running against Chirac within Chirac’s own party. Is it a good idea to publicly “extend a hand” to Chirac, then?
- Chirac in fact, was allegedly involved in the affaire Clearstream
- Chirac’s administration as mayor of Paris was marked by corruption, from the water works contracts to other kinds of graft, and let’s not forget about his lunch money.
- Back in 2006 I was posting about Chirac’s own secret service. You may also recall Chirac’s support of Hugo Chavez.
And let’s not forget that Chirac’s foundation strongly promotes the globalisation tax, a tax on wealth generated by globalization:
“It could be a tax on airplane tickets, on carbon dioxide, on health products sold in industrialised countries, and indeed on internationalLet's see, two corrupt politicians working together... both seem to have admiration for socialist dictators... both seem to like the idea of taxes on wealth(and objects, and labor, and everything else)...
financial transactions,” one source said.
5 comments:
Yeah it's that bad. Obama has slighted the British, the Irish, and now the French.
This thing with the French is more important than people will say it is. Sarkozy is facing general strikes by his countrymen who resist his economic stimulus and his reform efforts. Obama has shown himself to be worse than naive on this one.
I don't like the French much. But they are skilled at negotiations and diplomacy. They and the rest of the world will (rightfully so) see this Obama regime as an easy mark.
"which Obama had also opposed as senator."
Except that, wait for it, Obama wasn't a senator when the vote to initiate our action in Iraq was passes. I wonder how on earth he opposed it when he wasn't a senator? Awfully easy for him to oppose something he didn't vote on, because the only commitment made is to say so. What a faker we have for president.
GAteway's update pointing out that Chirac has a "Foundation" and that Obama was writing to him in his capacity as head of it removes pretty much any ire I think this should support.
The CSM says his foundation "... is promoting access to water and medicines in west Africa, combating deforestation in the Congo Basin, and trying to save dying languages in Polynesia"; all exactly the sort of thing that every President supports and writes nice letters suggesting.
President Bush did a lot for Africans too, remember?
Hell, he probably even worked with Chirac to do so, in Chirac's then-capacity as President of the French Republic.
And again according to the CSM, other French news services didn't interpret "peace" the way Figaro did - and Figaro is not privileged.
Obama has been exceedingly disappointing (of my not very high expectations) so far, but this? This is a molehill, not a mountain. In fact, I'm not even sure it's a molehill.
Sig, you may be right. I'll have to read a bit on it; that list of Chirac's group sounds like a big part of a wish list of the type Obama would, if not join, at least suck up to for publicity.
On the other hand it wouldn't surprise me at all to find out he deliberately did something to snub the current head of state.
Well, even if this wasn't a snub of the French, it is interesting that President Obama has insulted the British and the Irish, and he's from the party that claimed his predecessor was insulting and alienating other nations around the world -- and Britain and Ireland are allies who are helping us, not un-aligned nations who need that combination of stick and carrot.
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