[spectre] France and Belgium pay the price for backing Saddam (WSJ)

[geert lovink]

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                  Copyright © 2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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                 www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html

  Saturday, April 12, 2003 12:01 a.m.


          ACROSS THE POND

          Lest We Forget

          France and Belgium pay the price for backing Saddam.

          BY MICHAEL GONZALEZ


BRUSSELS--"How did we get here?" asked a former French minister in a
newspaper column recently. "Here" is a situation in which French Jews
are being beaten up in the streets of Paris and in which President
Jacques Chirac has to write to Queen Elizabeth to apologize for the
desecration of British tombs in France, and in which one-third of the
French have been pulling for Saddam Hussein to win.

An even better question is who brought us here. The former environment
minister, Corinne Lepage, lays the blame on the government and an
obeisant media for "having wanted to stigmatize American policy in
excessive fashion." But it's time to name names.

Mr. Chirac brought us here, as did his foreign minister Dominique de
Villepin. In Belgium the foreign, defense and prime ministers--Louis
Michel, André Flahaut and Guy Verhofstadt--have brought their country
to shame too. And that's just the start.

Mr. de Villepin, the pinup boy of diplomacy in "progressive" circles,
was not just content to travel the world in an attempt to derail U.S.
policy. Reportedly, he also has made instructive comments that make
clear "how we got here." Mr. de Villepin, sources say, last week told
members of the National Assembly that "hawks" in the U.S.
administration are "in the hands of [Ariel] Sharon." According to the
satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaine, he went so far as to attack a
"pro-Zionist" lobby made up of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz,
White House staffer Elliot Abrams and Pentagon adviser Richard Perle,
all Jews.

But it's not just a juif thing. Mr. de Villepin--who claims in his book
"The Cry of the Gargoyle" to be a fan of both Machiavelli and
Napoleon--never shies from messianic statements. He told legislators
that the fight over Iraq was actually one against "Anglo-Saxon
liberalism," an Assembly member told me.

But indignant reactions are now being heard. An editorial on Radio
France Internationale noticed that the phrase "the Anglo-American
forces," constantly used instead of "coalition forces," is borrowed
straight from Vichy propaganda. In her own j'accuse for Le Figaro, Ms.
Lepage said that to the errors of the media and the leaders, "one can
add the pacifist demonstrations, which have nothing peaceful about
them." She could "bear witness to the fact that these demonstrations
are far from gatherings of real defenders of the rights of man or of
peace. These are hordes orchestrated by the security services of
Islamicist groups which . . . shout extremely violent slogans in which
racial and anti-Semitic hatred is expressed without the least taboo."

Small wonder that the Interior Ministry itself says a mere spark could
"turn anti-Americanism in the suburbs into uncontrolled violence." That
observation comes too late for Noam Levy, a Jew beaten with an iron bar
while at an antiwar demonstration. He said he was shocked by "the
anti-Zionist slogans." (He should check with the Quai d'Orsay about the
provenance of these feelings.) And it's too late for the families of
Britons who died defending France in World War I, and whose tombs near
Calais were vandalized. Among the graffiti on a cenotaph: "Dig up your
rubbish, it's contaminating our soil."

"France," wrote Mr. Chirac to Queen Elizabeth with all the pomp--not to
mention pomposity--at his command, "knows what it owes to the sacrifice
and courage of British soldiers who came to help her recover her
liberty in the fight against barbarity. . . . From the French people
and from me personally, I offer you my deepest regrets." Too late. Mr.
Chirac has himself refused to say which side he backs in the war. No
wonder a third of the French tell pollsters that they want Saddam to
win. Mr. Chirac is basking in 60% approval ratings, but he's paid for
them dearly. Demonstrators in the street shout "Long live Chirac, stop
the Jews!"

In Belgium, I've witnessed the defense and foreign ministers feed the
beast of anti-Americanism, only to protest later that they want to
defang it. At a debate last month at the University Libre de Bruxelles,
I saw Messrs. Michel and Flahaut inflame a crowd with their comments.
Belgians, said the former, are beginning to look on the U.S. as they
once did the Soviet Union. "I am beginning to fear the U.S.," he added,
his voice rising, to much applause from a 2,000-strong crowd. Not to be
outdone, Mr. Flahaut promised to do all he could to kick Tony Blair out
of the Socialist International.

By "debate," incidentally, I mean a representative of Republicans
Abroad and me on one side, and on the other the two ministers, two
pro-government university professors, a journalist who was supposed to
act as moderator, and Iraq's ambassador to Belgium. The Iraqi was twice
interrupted by the crowd with applause; I was accused of being a CIA
agent. When one student stood up to complain that a representative of
Saddam's regime was applauded while I was booed, the crowd shouted her
down.

Can anyone wonder at the crowd's response, given such leadership? Mr.
Flahaut called for bigger anti-U.S. demonstrations that weekend. The
government needed them, he said. His government was doing more than
just standing by. Just as in places like Castro's Cuba, parents at some
Belgian schools received requests for their children to attend the
demonstration. As for Mr. Michel, he personally quashed a revolt in his
Mouvement Reformateur at a party meeting last month. One politician who
was there told me the majority wanted the Belgian government to have a
more nuanced policy and not to be in such opposition to the U.S. But
Mr. Michel threatened, cajoled, and got his way. This is why there
hasn't been a backbench revolt in Belgium and France, though this week
a Belgian politician tried to redress the balance by delivering letters
of support to the British and U.S. Embassies.

A senior Belgian official told me last week that Mr. Michel "now
realizes he's gone too far, that he's made comments he ought not to
have made, and is trying to calm things down." Too late. His government
situated itself against the war and the U.S. out of a long tradition of
subservience to the French and out of fear that otherwise its large
Muslim population would riot. "The people then may react by voting for
the far right," a Belgian official told me.

Explicable, perhaps. But how immoral to act in such a manner, and how
dangerous.

The increasingly visible joy of liberated Iraqis is making clear the
moral bankruptcy of those who purported to take the high ground by
prolonging Saddam's rule. The diplomatic blunders of Brussels and Paris
are coming home to roost. This is how we got here.

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Mr. Gonzalez is the deputy editorial page editor of The Wall Street
Journal Europe