Godless Mom in the Bible Belt

Lately George Bush has been showing deep disdain for those in Congress who have (finally) dared to come out against his policies in Iraq. He keeps playing his same old song, saying that our senators saw the same intelligence he saw and that the intelligence from around the world showed the same thing. He claims that it is the anti-war folks who are re-writing history and that by doing so they are dishonoring our soldiers. So, in the interest of calling him on his bullshit I would like to reprint a segment of a speech given by the French Foreign Affairs Minister, Dominique de Villepin to the UN Security Council on February 14, 2003.

"Then there are those who believe that continuing the inspection process is a kind of delaying tactic to prevent or avert military intervention. That naturally raises a question of how much time is allowed Iraq. And this brings us to the heart of the matter. What is at stake is our credibility and our sense of responsibility.

"Let us have the courage to see things as they are. There are two options. The option of war might seem a priori to be the swiftest, but let us not forget that having won the war, peace has to be built. Let us not delude ourselves. This will be long and difficult because it will be necessary to preserve Iraq's unity and to restore stability in a lasting way in a country and a region harshly affected by the intrusion of force.

"Faced with that prospective, there is an alternative -- inspections -- which allow us to move forward day by day with the effective and peaceful disarmament of Iraq. In the end, is that choice not the most sure and most rapid?

"No one today can claim that the path of war will be shorter than the path of inspections. No one can claim that it would lead to a safer, more just, more stable world, for war is always the sanction of failure. Would this be our sole recourse in the face of the many challenges at this time?...

"Ten days ago, the U.S. Secretary of State, Mr. Powell, reported alleged links between al-Qaida and the Baghdad regime. Given the present state of our research and intelligence in liaison with our allies, nothing allows us to establish such links. But we must assess the impact that disputed military action would have on this level.

"Would such intervention today not be liable to exacerbate divisions between societies, cultures, peoples; divisions that nurture terrorism?"

In return, a wave of intense French hatred swept through our country. We even went so far as to rename French Fries, how pitifully childish is that?

Let's not forget the way things actually went down.