Dear Log,
"Jacques Chirac a critiqué lundi soir à l'attitude des pays candidats à l'Union Européenne qui ont proclamé leur soutien aux Etats-Unis sur la question irakienne. "Ce n'est pas un comportement très responsable. En tous les cas, ce n'est pas très bien élevé. Je crois qu'ils ont manqué une bonne occasion de se taire", a-t-il déclaré. "Ces pays ont été un peu inconscients du danger que comportait un trop rapide alignement sur la position américaine", a-t-il ajouté. Il a pointé plus particulièrement la Roumanie et la Bulgarie, "particulièrement légères de se lancer ainsi alors que leur position est déjà très délicate à l'égard de l'Europe. Si elles voulaient diminuer leurs chances d'entrer dans l'Europe, elles ne pouvaient pas trouver un meilleur moyen"My translation:
Monday night, Jacques Chirac criticized the attitude of the EU candidate countries who voiced their support for the US on the Iraq issue. "This is not very responsible behavior. Anyway, it's crude. I think they've missed a good opportunity to be quiet", he declared. "These countries were a bit unmindful of the risk of too quickly coming about to the American position", he added. He specifically singled out Romania and Bulgaria as [having been?] "particularly careless in going off like this since their position with Europe is very delicate. If they wanted to shrink their chances of making it into Europe, they could not have found a better way."
Shrak's condescending phrase that I've translated as "crude" is "pas très bien élevé", literally "not very well raised". I was tempted to translate it as "childish" or even something like "lower class" or "primitive".
If it's "obvious" to the Dove's that America wants war with Iraq for their oil, then it's equally "obvious" to me that France wants peace to protect it's current import/export status with Iraq.
Maybe peace-loving France should sell Iraq some more F-1 Mirage fighter jets or Exocet missiles before war breaks out, so they can at least squeeze a few more $$$$ out of Saddam first.
Re:Blech
Ovid on 2003-02-20T19:38:50
What's the old saying? "Give the Germans an inch and they'll take France"
:) (Just kidding! I have a number of friends and relatives in Germany and I can only hope they don't read this entry
:) Re:Blech
djberg96 on 2003-02-20T20:07:26
LOL! Don't even get me started!Re: Blech
brev on 2003-02-20T19:45:15
If we're going to drag history into this, then nobody should give a damn what the USA thinks of Saddam Hussein. At least that's relevant history.
Anyway I agree that Chirac is corrupt and elitist, and the current French position on Iraq is merely self-serving. In this quote he has betrayed a craven toll-exacting agenda behind his supposed stand on principle. Pas très bien élevé.Re:Blech
darobin on 2003-02-21T11:49:58
Sorry to be blunt but honestly, anyone thinking that a country would jeopardize several billion dollars (european billions) in yearly exchange to save a couple hundred million elsewhere is, err, not being very intelligent.
And if you want to look into American history ("lets promote dictators and slaughter democracy worldwide, yahooo!"), I fail to see why anyone would trust the US even with a small size rock.
