18891: Durban: Washington Times: French Surprise in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Lance Durban - MANUTECH <lpdurban@yahoo.com>

Appearing in the Washington Times...


FRENCH SURPRISE IN HAITI
By Kenneth R. Timmerman
-----------------------------------------------------------


    When I first heard the announcement from the French Foreign
Ministry in Paris, I thought it was a joke.

    France is considering sending troops to Haiti, smack in the
middle of America's Caribbean back yard, to quell unrest against
a Marxist-leaning president by fellow Haitians who reject his
iron grip on power.

    Wasn't that precisely what the Monroe Doctrine, announced in
1823 as Europe sought to subvert local governments in America's
backyard, was supposed to prevent?

    The French claim they have 2,000 citizens living in Haiti,
and must send a "rescue mission" to protect them during the
violence. If that sounds familiar, it should. France has used
similar pretexts in Congo, Ivory Coast, Chad and elsewhere
whenever it has sought to reverse regimes, install friendlier
dictators or otherwise protect French national interests.

    Despite all the huffing and puffing of Foreign Minister
Dominique Galouzeau de Villepin during the Iraq crisis last
year, the French have shown repeatedly they will act without so
much as a nod to the United Nations whenever they feel
their interests require a rapid response.

    The French move has apparently taken Secretary of State
Colin Powell by surprise. As The Washington Times' Sharon Behn
reported Wednesday, Mr. de Villepin breathed not a word of his
intentions when he met with Mr. Powell last Friday. But in
Paris, the mecurial Frenchman was telling reporters France could
intervene in a heartbeat, and pointed out France has 4,000
troops in nearby Martinique and Guadaloupe, French overseas
departments.

    The U.S. is in a quandary. The State Department says it is
"deeply engaged" in Haiti to effect a peaceful resolution to the
12-day old revolt by armed "thugs," but Mr. Powell has made it
clear he does not favor sending U.S. troops. So now the French
have sprung the trap on him.

    The French foreign minister's behavior is reminiscent of
another time he sandbagged an unsuspecting Mr. Powell, that
close advisers to the secretary of state tell me he has never
forgotten — or forgiven.

    The French betrayal of America during the Iraq crisis last
year was almost legendary in proportion, but it was widely
misreported by a Bush-hating press.

    The version most Americans are familiar with has the French
insisting the United States return to the United Nations for yet
another Security Council resolution in January and February
2003, to authorize the use of force against Saddam
Hussein. When U.S. diplomacy failed, President Bush ordered U.S.
troops into Iraq unilaterally.

    While those events did indeed occur, beneath the surface
another dance was taking place, a devious dance that had been
choreographed by French President Jacques Chirac and his
preening foreign minister, Dominique Galouzeau de Villepin.

    In fact, I can now reveal, Mr. Chirac personally telephoned
President Bush at the White House to assure him France would
support the United States at the U.N. in seeking a new Security
Council resolution. Mr. Chirac even ordered the French Joint
Chiefs of Staff to prepare units to be send to Iraq as part of a
U.S.-led liberation army.

    But on Jan. 20, 2003, Mr. de Villepin pulled the rug out
from under Mr. Powell and the president, announcing behind Mr.
Powell's back at the United Nations that France would under no
circumstances send troops to Iraq — in direct contradiction of
those promises he and Mr. Chirac had made to the United States.

    To this day, the French have remained unrepentant about
their lies, apparently in the belief this is what big boys do
when they play on the world stage.

    The rest, as they say, is history. The president's staff was
so angered by the French perfidy that they renamed the French
toast on Air Force One "freedom toast," and Americans were soon
munching on "freedom fries" as well.

    The situation in Haiti is complex. President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, a once-elected president, has now become "an opponent
of democracy," says Constantine Menges, a former Reagan
administration NSC official who helped plan the invasion of
Grenada and the overthrow of its New Jewel Party communists in
1983.

    Some of the "thugs" that he complains are killing innocent
Haitians are being "led by gangs he armed for the purpose of
opposing the genuine and unarmed democrats" who have been
seeking Mr. Aristide's ouster through elections, Mr. Menges
adds.

    Into such a witches' brew, simmering right on America's back
porch, the last thing we need is to bring in the French. By now,
Colin Powell should understand Foreign Minister Villepin is up
to his old tricks. French troops in Haiti will not absolve the
United States from its responsibilities; they will only make
matters worse.



 <i>Kenneth R. Timmerman, a senior writer for Insight Magazine,
is author of "The French Betrayal of America," forthcoming from
Crown Forum.</i>