THE
ROVING EYE Bush's brand-new poodle
By Pepe Escobar
He
was impregnably armored by his good intentions and
his ignorance. - Graham Greene, The Quiet
American
PARIS - With former British
prime minister Tony Blair out of the picture,
there's now a newer, leaner, meaner,
adrenaline-packed "Made in France" version. Thanks
to his unrelenting support for President George W
Bush's war on Iraq, Blair used to be derided
in
all corners of the globe as Bush's poodle. Now the
new self-appointed lap dog is French President
Nicolas Sarkozy.
The hyperactive "Sarkozy
the First" - as he is widely referred to in France
- has just pronounced his first major
foreign-policy speech, to an annual conference of
200-odd French ambassadors from posts around the
world. He took no time to engage himself in the
current White House and neo-conservative-promoted
Iran-demonization campaign.
Neo-cons and
their ilk in France, plus mostly sycophant media,
obviously loved it, with instant geopoliticians
raving about the "prudent" and "firm" stand behind
Sarkozy's rhetoric.
He said an Iranian
nuclear bomb would be "unacceptable" - as if the
United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) was on the verge of discovering one or two
hidden under a pile of exquisite Hamadan carpets.
Sarkozy is in favor of even more sanctions
against Iran, but is willing to talk in the event
the Islamic Republic suspends its
nuclear-enrichment program, which Iran has a right
under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to
pursue. So Iran must renounce an inalienable right
for the West to be willing to discuss substance.
Sarkozy has already coined the sound bite framing
the "catastrophic" alternative: "The Iranian bomb,
or the bombing of Iran."
Sarkozy now
officially joins the US thunder and lightning
unleashed by the White House, the Pentagon,
Republicans, Democrats and corporate media, which
all take for granted the "all options are on the
table" scenario as far as Iran is concerned.
With the IAEA making steady progress on
ironing out misunderstandings on Iran's nuclear
program, and signing an understanding to that
effect, the new casus belli du jour for
attacking Iran is that it is helping Shi'ite
guerrillas kill American soldiers in Iraq. Thus
the White House's proposed designation of the
Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist
outfit - tantamount to declaring war on the elite
group.
Sarkozy for his part re-attacks on
the nuclear front. Now that's some real
trans-Atlantic entente. Sarkozy said everything
must be done to "prevent a confrontation between
Islam and the West". His idea of preventing
confrontation is to antagonize Iran and - why not?
- Turkey.
Sarko stressed that the "only"
option for Turkey's accession talks with the
European Union is a fuzzy partnership framed by a
Mediterranean Union (which, he also stressed,
should start by 2009). He remains absolutely
against EU membership for Turkey. His vague
proposal is to set up a "committee of wise men" to
study where Europe is heading. The Istanbul daily
Zaman tried to put on a brave face, stressing that
even though Sarkozy prefers an association, he
"will not be opposed" to new negotiations between
the EU and Turkey.
Sarkozy vaguely
suggested that a possible solution to breach the
West/Islam abyss would be for France to "help
Muslim countries to have access to nuclear energy"
(would Iran be included?). He did not say a word
about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
fighting in Afghanistan; just that European
meddling in Afghan affairs would be in vain if
Pakistan "remained the refuge of Taliban and
al-Qaeda".
Not only pontificating over the
troubles of the Muslim world, Sarkozy also
criticized a "certain brutality" by Russia and
China in their thirst for energy in Africa - much
to the delight of Washington. But Iraq, for
Sarkozy, remains a "tragedy". He had to take pains
to stress that France "is and continues to be
hostile to his war" - something that may distress
Washington, but not as much as former president
Jacques Chirac's stubborn opposition to the war.
The only solution in Iraq will be
"political", implying "a clear timetable for the
retreat of foreign troops". Here we have Sarkozy
involuntarily joining Shi'ite leader Muqtada
al-Sadr - and the Iranians.
The Middle
East is awash in so much grief that few in the
region will bother to listen to what the new
French mission civilisatrice amounts to -
apart from the hard sell of Louis Vuitton bags to
local elites.
Meanwhile in Paris,
relatively few voices are concerned over the
Bush-Sarkozy lovefest - a measure of how Sarkozy,
as former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi once
did in Italy, exercises almost universal power
over the French media (one of his former top
advisers now is at the top at TF1, the private
channel that subscribes to the Rupert
Murdoch/Berlusconi school of mass television).
The flashy Sarkozy has already been
portrayed as the epitome of the new bling-bling
right, which has replaced the defunct caviar left;
his role models are Rupert "Fox" Murdoch and
Bernard Arnault, the first fortune of France and
owner, among others, of deluxe conglomerate LVMH.
First a beaming Sarkozy met with Bush in
Maine on August 11 during his tabloid-style
holidays - complete with pirate Sarkozy invading a
paparazzi boat. Then on August 19 he sent dashing
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on a Baghdad
tour. Kouchner - who was in favor of the war on
Iraq in 2003 - has lost all the credibility he had
as "the French doctor" who founded Medecins Sans
Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). He's now no
more than a Sarkozy messenger boy.
Not
happy to be constantly yapping on the phone with
his new pal, US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice, Kouchner made notoriously skillful French
diplomats blush in disgust when he told Newsweek
that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had to
go. Maliki demanded an apology; at least Kouchner
was gentleman enough to acquiesce.
Next
month, Sarkozy goes back to the US, to attend the
United Nations General Assembly. Not only is he
eager to do anything to help Bush and
"Condoleezza" in Iraq, he now goes all-out neo-con
on Iran. After more than 100 days in power, he's
still immensely popular in France, frantically
monopolizing the political spectrum on an
around-the-clock basis. But he would be wise to
spare a thought for what happens to hyperactive
poodles that go against their voters' wishes.
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