Facing up to war
March 2, 2003 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Paris—- A special issue of Britain’s daily, The Sun, appeared suddenly in Paris last week, written in French. The headline screamed “Chirac est un ver”—- Chirac is a worm—- and featured a photo of President Jacques Chirac’s head on a worm’s body.
The New York Post recently replaced French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin’s head with a weasel’s. The phrase “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” is reappearing at a startling rate, and in the Midwest, a food vendor sells “freedom fries” with his hot dogs.
In France, however, the leaders of the Post’s “axis of weasels,” Chirac and de Villepin, appear in Paris-Match magazine under the headline: “Warriors for peace.”
French citizens are backing their government’s actions with an 80 percent approval rating, numbers within a point of the support given Chirac when he crushed right-winger Jean-Marie Le Pen in last spring’s presidential elections.
The French “non” to a war in Iraq could hardly be stronger.
Is this really a case of an ungrateful people thumbing its nose at the United States while grasping to regain a greatness it knew centuries ago? Is France truly forgetting a mountain of gratitude it owes to its liberators?
Strong ties with Arab world
Most French would say their quest for a peaceful resolution goes much deeper than pride.
One of their primary concerns is what will happen in France after a war begins. With a Muslim population of more than 4 million and strong historic ties with the Arab world, France believes that it risks much more than the United States does in this sense.
Chirac, in a Time magazine interview, cited the risk of inciting what he called “little bin Ladens” who would appear in France and around the world once the bombs start falling on Iraq.
“Starting a war isn’t going to help resolve our problem with terrorists, but it will destabilize France,” says Damien Raymond, a French computer engineer who received his master’s degree from Cornell University. “Whether or not France participates, a war is going to incite a wave of terrorism around the world.”
France’s strong ties with Muslim countries would be seriously strained if France took part in an Iraq war.
Olivier Benoit, a graphic designer in Paris, has just come back from a vacation in Morocco. “It’s a country that’s profoundly attached to France,” he said.
“France has a large Muslim community and has always invested in the Maghreb”—- the term that describes Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. “Chirac is trying to tell both that he’s not forgetting them.”
At odds with U.S. approach
The French do agree with the United States that Saddam Hussein is at the heart of the problem, but they disagree with the American approach on how to deal with him. “Regime change can’t happen by blowing up the Iraqi infrastructure—- it isn’t going to help their people become a strong people,” says Raymond.
Genevieve Brame, Normandy-based author of “Chez Vous en France—- Living and Working in France,” doubts that an invasion would even find Saddam.
Brame explains her country’s tactics of a continued push for diplomacy and why she supports her president: “Chirac is taking a position where he’s slowly advancing his pawns to win, not going in all at once. It’s a long process but it can be very successful at dismantling your enemy.”
The French are quick to say that their beef is not with the American people but with the U.S. president.
A survey by French polling group BVA for Paris-Match shows that 76 percent have an unfavorable opinion of President Bush, and only 8 percent think France could learn anything from U.S. foreign policy.
“George Bush comes from a standpoint 180 degrees from what the French know,” says Jerome Sainte Maire, director of polling at BVA. “He has a violence in the way he presents himself. This roughness has ignited people’s negative stereotype of him as an American cowboy.”
Poll numbers also took a nosedive when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld referred to France and Germany as “problems” and “Old Europe.” The low mark in foreign affairs stems from this cavalier, simplistic stereotype.
“The French approach is not as cut and dry, but it gives a certain amount of latitude,” said Brame. “We’re much less direct, but this accounts for nuances.”
The French opposition to war has also evolved over the past several months. In the fall of 2002, France was largely opposed to an attack on Iraq because it feared American hegemony.
“This perception has now shifted,” contends Sainte Maire, the pollster. “Peace now comes from the idea of peace itself as a worthy goal along with the idea that the injustice caused to the Iraqi people does not justify the use of military action. There is a strong amount of sympathy for the Iraqi people because the French were trampled in both World Wars.”
Said Brame: “Everywhere under our feet in France, we have the blood of people who died for us. We’ve learned the hard way to want to do everything possible to keep war from happening.”
