The intersection of opportunity, national interest and the chance to do well while also doing good is a compelling one, whether for an individual or a state. Happily, France appears to agree that all three have come together in Iraq and appears prepared to seize the main chance. In today’s NYT:
After years of shunning involvement in a war it said was wrong, France now believes that it may hold the key to peace in Iraq, proposing itself as an “honest broker” between the Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish factions there.
During a three-day visit to Baghdad that ended Tuesday, the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said the time had come for France, and Europe, to play a greater role in Iraq.
Well past time, some might say, but never mind: Better late than never.
This being France, and the topic being diplomacy, not everyone is on board of course:
(O)ne diplomat explained, “The prevailing view in a significant part of the French diplomatic community is that mediation in Iraq is futile and that the civil war needs to run its course and hand a decisive victory to one faction before the violence can end.”
That might sound bloody-minded, but our French cousins have a fair amount of history – foreign and domestic – with violent civil wars that have run at last to a panting end, to go along with a visceral opposition to anything smacking of accomodation with the “hyperpower.”
But while the elite may seek an opportunity to score settle with collaborators under the color of a world-weary realisme, the French media – left and right – appear to have tired of banging spoons upon their high chairs:
“France owed it to itself to return to Iraq,” the conservative newspaper Le Figaro said in an editorial on Tuesday. “You can shut yourself off for four years in the conviction to have been right, but that doesn’t increase the role our country plays on the international scene.”
Or, as the left-leaning Le Monde put it, “It’s time to stop lecturing the Americans about their errors and start contributing to a solution.”
Just so.
Update: Sarkozy ‘corrects’ Chirac’s errors
Ouch. That’s got to sting.
Whoa.
The Left and Right in agreement on the US and Iraq, of all things?
Are pigs flying? Is hell freezing?
Who’da thunk the French would see the light and try to actually help us?
It must be time to buy a lottery ticket.
No, it’s just time to reestablish those good old fashioned oil brokerage deals they had a few years ago. One can only do so much on the black market.
LOL Casca…can’t argue with that realistic optimism.
So in viewing this from a strictly “Tom Barnett” perspective… is France now pony-ing up to become the “Sys-Admin Force” whilst the United States continues in our role, experts that we may be, as the “Leviathan Force”?
Sure sounds like it to me.
France for the oil, followed by Germany, with Saudi Arabia waiting for the rest.
Of course, France and Germany will have to deal with Russia. Since they’re all in bed together in the arms game, that shouldn’t be too difficult.
Veritas et Fidelis Semper
I dunno. It looks to me as if they are just looking for someone new to surrender to.
I am much more likely to listen to critique of the game from a fellow player than from a spectator.
No, no… it is beginning to look like an exit strategy may begin to be discussed as the locals begin to take more responsibility for the state of affairs in Iraq. Far be it for the French to miss an opportunity to run to the front… of a retreat. They will wave their flag and claim victory by coming to the aid of the world; by bringing peace to the region…
Far be it for the French to miss out on a good surrender!
Oh, and the will probably begin negotiation for selling them a nuclear reactor… a breeder reactor if they can get a good oil contract out of it. … all in the name of global peace.
Perhaps France has decided to bet that we’re going to succeed and they would like to get a favorable oil deal.
This is as meaningful as Russia declaring war on Japan just before the end. At this point, it’s all about commerce and influence.
No blood = no oil!
I’m with Danger on the nuke thing, from what happened last time with that little strike and all…
Who would have thought that a unified world could bring an end to terror?
What an amazing concept…
“The French Doctors”? Dunno about that, it’s always been Doctors without Borders here…
Whatever their reasons – it’s about time they stepped up, in whatever capacity. I may not start drinking french wine again any time soon (much prefer the CA and Tuscan reds) it’s about time they remembered who free’d them from Nazi rule. That bullshit about “being with the U.S. in the heart” after 9/11…Chirac was arrogant and I’m glad to hear Sarkozy call it like it is.
I am on my way out the door to buy a lottery ticket! Agree with P-3W as well as Danger. Well said!
Even if it is late in the game I say better late than never.
Sim
There is a French group of Doctors Without Borders. “Medicine sans …something” …can’t remember the last word. Apparently you can’t get rid of them.
Medecins sans Frontieres, I b’lieve. Tenacious fellers (and ladies).
Correct Lex, but according to the article you linked the English translation or rather what they’re commonly known as is “The French Doctors”. News to me.
BTW There’s an Engineers without Borders organisation too.