Bruised French-US ties take time to heal

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, December 22, 2003

Bruised French-US ties take time to heal

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The year of 2003 witnessed France and the United States engaged in a tense tug of war over Iraq, which culminated in a strained transatlantic relationship, bringing the ties between the two allies to their lowest level in decades.

The diplomatic wrestling not only put a dent in the US-French alliance which has experienced ups and downs along the way, but also struck an inharmonious note within the European Union as wellas the United Nations.

THE RIFT DEEPENS

The confrontation across the Atlantic was first triggered when Paris argued for proofs of the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and then threatened to veto the US-tabled resolution which would authorize the use of force to disarm Iraq.

Later, France mustered support from Germany and Russia, and thethree countries issued a joint statement, standing firm against giving the Bush administration a green light to launch military action on Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The spat further escalated when France, Germany and Belgium joined a chorus of opposition to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) providing Iraqi-related security assistance toTurkey.

In a fit of pique, the US media hurled a volley of verbal attacks on France. Emotional judgments such as "France is becomingAmerica's enemy" were heard from across the Atlantic, and "French fries" in the US legislators' menu were also replaced by "Freedom fries."

Trivial as the nature of the petty actions may seem, it is a symbolic show of the strong displeasure by the United States. Emotions even prompted some Americans to call for punishment against the French disobedience.

In retaliation, the French press lashed out at Washington's commitment to war, linking it to a psychological need to reassert its hegemony in the wake of the national trauma of the Sept. 11 attacks.

When Baghdad fell, Saddam was ousted and the war declared over,the frosty ties seemed to begin to thaw. The media in both countries ran headlines on warm handshakes when French President Jacques Chirac and his US counterpart George W. Bush met during the G8 summit as well as the UN General Assembly.

But France's decision not to provide financial aid and militaryassistance beyond the EU framework, at a time when the US forces were bogged down in the war-torn Iraq and Washington desperately needed a helping hand from the international community, capped months of at times bitter haggling between the two allies.

WHERE DOES FRANCE'S DEFIANCE STEM?

The reason for the French to often voice their concerns more strongly and decisively than many other countries may be traced back to a political legacy left in the Fifth Republic by General Charles de Gaulle, who in 1966 announced France's decision to withdraw from NATO's integrated military structure and forced NATO's headquarters to move out of Paris.

And many say it is a political tradition in France to voice itsconcerns more loudly and it is also because France harbors an ambition to build a multi-polar world which Paris wants to be partof.

A 25-nation EU would provide a stage for France to achieve its ambition. A driving force behind the bloc's economic and monetary integration in the past decades, France also initiated the European rapid reaction force and supported the deployment of European peacekeeping forces in Europe and Africa.

France has redoubled efforts for a Europe of defense in the past months, eager to defend the proposal for a planning and operational headquarters for the EU, while trying to convince the United States that such a headquarters will be compatible with NATO.

The French-US split is also rooted in their different visions of the world: Paris envisages a "multi-polar" order while Washington prefers a "go-it-alone" approach.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the Americans, confident that theircause is esteemed as the cause of mankind, tend to interpret the French term of "multi-polar" as an inertial force of "la grandeur perdue" and an anti-American obsession just because the American is American.

Indulging in its self-assumed dominance in international affairs and habit of going its own ways at almost every turn, the United States saw in the French efforts a "crazy hope that a weakened United States will pave the way for France to assume its 'rightful' place as America's equal, if not superior, in shaping world affairs," said prominent commentator Thomas L. Friedman.

However, France and most other countries loathe to see a "go-it-alone" superpower because the history has taught them to be wary of any excessive concentration of international power. They are well aware of the historical lesson that the world would be more secure if it was subject to an international system of checks and balances.

That was why Russia and China, two veto-wielding powers in the UN Security Council, joined France and Germany in objecting to theUS-led military action on Iraq without UN authorization. The United States also failed to enlist adequate support from its Asian and Latin American allies.

The same logic explains the international community's insistence on a rapid transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis and a bigger role for the United Nations in the reconstruction of the post-war Iraq.

HOW FAR COULD THEY GO IN RECONCILING?

Nonetheless, any punishment to be meted out hastily by either party would take a heavy toll only on the punisher itself, since the two economies are too interwoven for any feasible retaliation.

Economically speaking, France is the third biggest foreign employer in the United States, providing payrolls for more than 650,000 Americans.

Each year, the United States exports some 20 billion dollars worth of goods to France and sells another 125 billion dollars worth of goods and services locally via affiliates.

The United States imports about 30 billion dollars in products from France annually, and French affiliates sell an extra 193 billion dollars in goods and services in the United States.

The same holds true for the political relationship between the two. The squabbling between France and the United States is in nature far from fundamentally incompatible. With the basic interests intrinsically intertwined, neither could afford to driftapart beyond retrieve.

Therefore, after months of strained relations, both started efforts to soothe the rough edges.

Paris was too eager not to gloat over its pre-war arguments against the use of force against Iraq. The French government resisted the "I-told-you-so"temptation when the American troops are trapped in post-war Iraq, knowing that, with Washington opposing, France will have difficulties in leading European political and military development.

It was apparently with this in mind that French President Chirac, in a gesture of reconciliation, revisited the ruins of thetwin-tower World Trade Center this year and paid respects to thosewho died in the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States. And he spared no effort to drive home France's "anti-war" rather than "anti-America" message.

For Washington, facing a rising tide of violence targeting US soldiers in Iraq, it too assumed a less arrogant attitude when seeking help from allies.

After bypassing the United Nations to declare war on Iraq, the United States was forced to turn to the world body for help in gaining international support in terms of military assistance as well as financial aid for post-war Iraq.

Analysts said diplomatic maneuvers full of imagination and skills may help mend the fences and strike a delicate balance between the interests of the two countries.

However, the intrinsic division persists and will be mirrored when a major event puts the two on opposite sides again. The woundleft by the diplomatic tussle may well take time to heal. (Xinhua)

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