So angry were Americans when France refused to support the UN authorization of Washington’s 2003 Iraq invasion that French wines and cheeses were boycotted. Some so-called patriotic burger joints renamed “French Fries” “American Fries” and “Freedom Fries.” Today those same joints should be serving copious helpings of entirely US-made Humble Pie.
As President Bush prepares to announce this week his latest Iraqi policy, his French counterpart, Jacques Chirac, has delivered a withering condemnation of US unilateralism. Invading Iraq was an “adventure” that had heightened communal divisions, shaken the country’s integrity and weakened the security of the entire Middle East. Most significantly, as part of Bush’s war on terror, it has been a complete failure since, far from being eliminated or even damaged, international terrorism has been strengthened. Chirac has been as consistently right as the Bush White House has been consistently wrong. The failure of US unilateral action, slavishly supported by British Premier Tony Blair who foolishly imagined his moment of glory had arrived, stemmed from unilateral thinking in Washington. It did not analyze the consequences of Saddam’s ouster. It did not see how its unwavering support for aggressive Zionist policies in Israel would influence the way its Iraq invasion would be interpreted regionally.
The unilateral and — now it is clear — very limited nature of the pre-invasion calculations in Washington, involved a catastrophically blinkered approach to alternative points of view. Those who did not agree with White House thinking were treated almost as enemies. It was further strongly implied that those who did not support the way Bush was waging the war on international terror were therefore actually supporting international terror.
Upon analysis of such banality, it should be no surprise that Washington has never recognized the amazing double standard which has done so much to undermine its international support, not least in the Arab world. When Palestinians fight back or Hezbollah defend their country, it is terrorism. When Israel lays waste southern Lebanon, detains elected Palestinian politicians, assassinates Palestinian leaders, bombards civilians, erects the illegal West Bank wall, lays siege to Gaza and reduces its people to penury, that is not terrorism. It is “legitimate use of state power.”
Nor is it terrorism when the United States and Britain attack a sovereign country on the basis of evidence that some knew to be entirely false. Sure, it is Iraqis now killing Iraqis, egged on by Al-Qaeda fanatics who have flooded into the country, but it was the Bush invasion that made this possible. It was the total lack of Bush post-invasion policies that fostered the savage chaos. It is the mule-like stubbornness of the Bush administration that now threatens to plunge the wider region into even greater danger and instability.
Chirac called for a “multipolar” world in which emerging global powers China, India and Brazil would dilute US dominance. His vision is alluring. Never again must the world suffer the unjust and tragic consequences of ignorant unilateral intervention.
