harbormaster
04-02-2003, 07:26 AM
Saddam's business partners
Sun Mar 30, 7:00 PM ET
BY LOU DOBBS
It is well past time that the United States seriously reviewed its economic and political relationships not only with France and Germany but with the United Nations (news - web sites) itself. Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroder are notorious emblems of the old Europe and have done incalculable damage not only to their respective relationships with the United States but also to an institution--the United Nations--that can hardly afford further assault.
Chirac, who seeks the limelight on even the most trivial of occasions, has once again miscalculated and attracted the glare of American consumers. "There is no risk that the United States and France, or the American and French people, will quarrel or get angry with each other," said Chirac, whose place in history is assured by his gargantuan geopolitical misjudgments.
American public sup-port for President Bush (news - web sites) and the war against Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) continues to grow--and, with it, public outrage against France for its irresponsible opposition to coalition efforts to liberate Iraq (news - web sites).
Chirac seems to be on some sort of self-appointed crusade to resurrect his relevance--and that of the government he purports to lead. But his recklessness could have severe geopolitical and economic repercussions.
France's economy is growing at its slowest rate in six years, and its unemployment rate now approaches 10 percent, hardly the picture of economic health. The French sell us almost $10 billion more in products than they buy from us, and that $10 billion is now threatened by American consumers who are fed up with France's callow opposition to U.S. policy and its de facto embrace of Hussein's regime of terror and oppression.
Down the drain? There are already signs that France may be feeling the pressure. French-wine sales in the United States have slowed. Distributors on the East and West coasts report that sales are down roughly 8 percent in the past month. And last week, the French Tourism Ministry said tourist bookings have fallen 15 percent to 25 percent since the start of the war in Iraq. The number of American tourists in France fell 18 percent last year--a trend that French officials said has continued this year.
Earlier this month, the state of Montana's pension funds sold off $15 million in French holdings because of concern about the country's dealings in Iraq and a backlash against French companies. "We couldn't figure out why France would be so adamant in keeping a murderous dictator in office," Montana Board of Investments member Jay Klawon told the Associated Press. "The only thing we could surmise is perhaps French companies have been doing business with Iraq against U.N. sanctions."
The business ties between France and Iraq have indeed been con-siderable and complex. France has exported $3.5 billion in goods to Iraq since sanctions were eased in 1996, according to a September 2002 report commissioned by the French Parliament. And in 2001, French exports to Iraq reached $650 million--more than any other country.
But France hasn't been the only one benefiting from Baghdad. So has the U.N. itself, through its oil-for-food program. The effect of the program has been to put tens of millions of dollars in the hands of Hussein over the past several years. Hussein has decided what to do with that money, and the U.N. has been his biggest accomplice. As Claudia Rosett of the Wall Street Journal has said, the U.N. has "become a business partner, effectively, with the Iraqi regime."
The U.N.'s oil-for-food program now supports a massive bureaucracy of 4,000 workers and is sitting on an $8 billion escrow account from the sale of Iraqi oil. Only after President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) publicly chastised the U.N. did it begin the process of freeing up that money so it can be used for the people who deserve it, and own it: the people of Iraq. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites), Chirac, Schroder, and Russia's Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) had worked to use the money intended for the Iraqi people as a lever against U.S. and British policy in Iraq.
The president's call for resumption of the oil-for-food program for humanitarian reasons is entirely appropriate. It's a mistake to continue the program beyond two to three months while permitting the U.N. to fly the blue and white flag over the Iraqi humanitarian relief effort. The red, white, and blue of the United States and Britain should fly over that effort to rid the region of the false impression that our flags are only battle standards and that the U.N. flag is the future.
Sun Mar 30, 7:00 PM ET
BY LOU DOBBS
It is well past time that the United States seriously reviewed its economic and political relationships not only with France and Germany but with the United Nations (news - web sites) itself. Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroder are notorious emblems of the old Europe and have done incalculable damage not only to their respective relationships with the United States but also to an institution--the United Nations--that can hardly afford further assault.
Chirac, who seeks the limelight on even the most trivial of occasions, has once again miscalculated and attracted the glare of American consumers. "There is no risk that the United States and France, or the American and French people, will quarrel or get angry with each other," said Chirac, whose place in history is assured by his gargantuan geopolitical misjudgments.
American public sup-port for President Bush (news - web sites) and the war against Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) continues to grow--and, with it, public outrage against France for its irresponsible opposition to coalition efforts to liberate Iraq (news - web sites).
Chirac seems to be on some sort of self-appointed crusade to resurrect his relevance--and that of the government he purports to lead. But his recklessness could have severe geopolitical and economic repercussions.
France's economy is growing at its slowest rate in six years, and its unemployment rate now approaches 10 percent, hardly the picture of economic health. The French sell us almost $10 billion more in products than they buy from us, and that $10 billion is now threatened by American consumers who are fed up with France's callow opposition to U.S. policy and its de facto embrace of Hussein's regime of terror and oppression.
Down the drain? There are already signs that France may be feeling the pressure. French-wine sales in the United States have slowed. Distributors on the East and West coasts report that sales are down roughly 8 percent in the past month. And last week, the French Tourism Ministry said tourist bookings have fallen 15 percent to 25 percent since the start of the war in Iraq. The number of American tourists in France fell 18 percent last year--a trend that French officials said has continued this year.
Earlier this month, the state of Montana's pension funds sold off $15 million in French holdings because of concern about the country's dealings in Iraq and a backlash against French companies. "We couldn't figure out why France would be so adamant in keeping a murderous dictator in office," Montana Board of Investments member Jay Klawon told the Associated Press. "The only thing we could surmise is perhaps French companies have been doing business with Iraq against U.N. sanctions."
The business ties between France and Iraq have indeed been con-siderable and complex. France has exported $3.5 billion in goods to Iraq since sanctions were eased in 1996, according to a September 2002 report commissioned by the French Parliament. And in 2001, French exports to Iraq reached $650 million--more than any other country.
But France hasn't been the only one benefiting from Baghdad. So has the U.N. itself, through its oil-for-food program. The effect of the program has been to put tens of millions of dollars in the hands of Hussein over the past several years. Hussein has decided what to do with that money, and the U.N. has been his biggest accomplice. As Claudia Rosett of the Wall Street Journal has said, the U.N. has "become a business partner, effectively, with the Iraqi regime."
The U.N.'s oil-for-food program now supports a massive bureaucracy of 4,000 workers and is sitting on an $8 billion escrow account from the sale of Iraqi oil. Only after President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) publicly chastised the U.N. did it begin the process of freeing up that money so it can be used for the people who deserve it, and own it: the people of Iraq. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites), Chirac, Schroder, and Russia's Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) had worked to use the money intended for the Iraqi people as a lever against U.S. and British policy in Iraq.
The president's call for resumption of the oil-for-food program for humanitarian reasons is entirely appropriate. It's a mistake to continue the program beyond two to three months while permitting the U.N. to fly the blue and white flag over the Iraqi humanitarian relief effort. The red, white, and blue of the United States and Britain should fly over that effort to rid the region of the false impression that our flags are only battle standards and that the U.N. flag is the future.