FRANCE, the US and the Iraq war

Christopher Jones says: "Jacques Chirac probably started beating his anti-US drum again because his popularity in the polls is sinking. This is a typical ploy in every politicians' handbook -- when they're out in the streets, (the country is suffering from wave after wave of public sector strikes, protesting Raffarin and Chirac's plans to reform the pension system, effectively raising the age for retirement and lowering the benefits) find some convenient out of country issue to rally support". RH: Inventing an enemy of the nation is an old way of gaining support. Many suspect that Bush started the war against Iraq to get the nation to rally behind him, and in this he has succeeded. Someone should write a history of the world as a series of wars against invented enemies. When I lived in Bavaria under Hitler, the walls were plastered with posters showing Czechoslovakia crammed with planes ready to take off and destroy Germany. Hitler was a dictator, but France and the US are democracies. Democratic leaders need popular support just as much as dictators, and they too may use the foreign threat to bolster support at home. The difference is that a free press serves as a control in a democracy.

Ronald Hilton - 5/29/03