A PLEASURABLE DUTY:

Chirac takes a swipe at US and Britain over Iraq war (Michael Smith, 07/06/2004, Daily Telegraph)

[I]n an apparent response to remarks by President Bush earlier in the day on the need for the allies to stick together, M Chirac pointedly recalled that it was the allied victory that led to the UN Charter.

That appeared to be a reference to what France, Germany and Russia, whose president Vladimir Putin was also present, saw as America and Britain's willingness to go to war without UN sanction.

France would never forget what it owed America, Mr Chirac said. On June 6, 1944, the tide had turned after years of darkness. "Nothing, no further folly, could stop the march towards freedom, the march towards peace now.

"Nothing could stop a new international order from forming, founded on respect for mankind and for the law, on freedom, justice and democracy, an order that is still symbolised and guaranteed today by the Charter of the United Nations."

The allies owed it to the men who died on the beaches of Normandy to remain "loyal to their legacy" in the face of "the dangers of a changing world", he said.

"Today, on June 6, 2004, it is that same hope, that same ideal that we owe to those men," he said. "It is that legacy, that duty, which we are commemorating today, for we are its custodians."

In WWII, America and Britain fought the French and the Germans. That duty is indeed unchanged.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 6, 2004 9:36 PM