February 6, 2003
ENMITY AND IVORY:
A French Fiasco in Africa? (David Ignatius, February 5, 2003, The Washington Post)With so much bad news in the world these days, it may seem strange to go looking for more. But the little-noticed diplomatic and military reversals in West Africa of a certain European nation are instructive, to say the least, about the unintended consequences of intervening abroad.The foreign interventionist in this case is none other than France. Yes, the same country that has been so critical lately of the United States for its plans to intervene militarily in Iraq. But this intervention is different, insist the French, because they have support from the United Nations and the Bush administration. Maybe so, but it's still proving to be something of a disaster.
The drama is being played out in Ivory Coast, a prosperous former colony of France often described as the jewel of West Africa. But in the past several years, the country has veered toward civil war between its mainly Muslim north and largely Christian south. The French finally decided to jump in last fall and put things right.
Now they have a bloody mess on their hands -- with anti-French rioting in Abidjan over the past week that threatens the estimated 15,000 French expatriates there. A top French official described them in an interview Monday as virtual hostages.
If you had a dollar for every time the word "French" is followed by "fiasco", you'd be able to work as little as a Parisian. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 6, 2003 11:47 AM
The U.N. Security Council approved France's intervention just yesterday by a unaminous vote. Don't you love their style. Perhaps they've established a precedent; just do it and dot the i's later.
Posted by: Genecis at February 6, 2003 12:48 PMThis realpolitik turns my stomach. The US agreed Tuesday night on a UN resolution supporting the French intervention in the Ivory Coast, which is supporting the Islamofascist rebels against the elected Christian government, and attempting to enforce a French-concocted "peace settlement" that gives the Muslim rebels control over the defense and police ministries -- the prelude to a coup. In exchange, I don't know what the US is getting -- I suspect Franco-German-Belgian consent for NATO approval of the Iraq war, which under Turkish law would end the need for approval from the Muslim-dominated Turkish parliament.
Posted by: pj at February 6, 2003 2:02 PMpj:
In exchange we get France bogged down in an imperial war that it can't emerge from with honor.
It didn't go in with honor, so coming out
with honor was never an option.
"Calm yourselves, African brothers, we
are zee French and we are here to help . . ."
You've got to wonder if it wouldn't be better to redraw the current borders of African countries since they seem to have lumped a lot of people who hate each other in the same countries.
Posted by: M Ali Choudhury at February 7, 2003 4:30 AM