Shut up, and know your place EU underlings!
<a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=524&u=/ap/20030217/ap_wo_en_po/eu_gen_eu_chirac_eastern_europe_1&printer=1" target="_blank">Chirac blasts countries for pro-American position</a>
So much for just expressing your opinion on a matter. Chirac tells various EU countries and candidates that they should have kept quiet, deferred to France and basically that they are being threated with not being admitted into the EU simply for agreeing with the majority of EU members and supporting the US position regarding Iraq.
We are told in arguments about this that every country has its beliefs, opinions and views regarding this. If the U.S. tries to force it's views on others then it is acting unilaterally and Bush is being a "cowboy." What then is Chirac and France when they threaten others for expressing an opinion that already agrees with the majority of the EU?
Nick
So much for just expressing your opinion on a matter. Chirac tells various EU countries and candidates that they should have kept quiet, deferred to France and basically that they are being threated with not being admitted into the EU simply for agreeing with the majority of EU members and supporting the US position regarding Iraq.
We are told in arguments about this that every country has its beliefs, opinions and views regarding this. If the U.S. tries to force it's views on others then it is acting unilaterally and Bush is being a "cowboy." What then is Chirac and France when they threaten others for expressing an opinion that already agrees with the majority of the EU?
Nick
Comments
france has no real power, even in the EU...sorry powerdoc, not meant to hurt your feelings or self-esteem....
[ 02-17-2003: Message edited by: thegelding ]</p>
"They missed a good opportunity to keep quiet."
"Romania and Bulgaria were particularly irresponsible to (sign the letter) when their position is really delicate," Chirac said. "If they wanted to diminish their chances of joining Europe they could not have found a better way."
--
I can hear Cyndi Lauper singing...
I see your true colors shinin' through
I see your true colors, and that's why I love you
so don't be afraid
to let them show
[ 02-17-2003: Message edited by: groverat ]</p>
<strong>ha, funny, i thought from your thread title that bush had made another speech today....g
france has no real power, even in the EU...sorry powerdoc, not meant to hurt your feelings or self-esteem....
[ 02-17-2003: Message edited by: thegelding ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
Oh, I forgot, only the US isn't allowed to try and apply pressure to other nations and only the US isn't allowed to act in their own interests.
[ 02-18-2003: Message edited by: Tulkas ]</p>
Oh wait, that's not Chirac is it?
<strong>Chirac is satan:
Oh wait, that's not Chirac is it?</strong><hr></blockquote>
He looks like Mephistopheles, more than Satan. However Groverat has a mephistophelic class and distinction
for the devil part i don't know
Love you Grover
Yes Chirac react like US : he was really pissed to be contradict <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
I believe that it was Shakespeare who said "Cuteness is in the eye of the pussywhipped."
If Eastern Europe wants to engage the US in trade relations, they should get together, make sure they have a sea-lane, and never look back. Personally I'd rather have the Americas and China as preferred trading partners than I would Western Europe. The EU blows. The Euro isn't popular. There aren't enough good reasons for a developing nation to join the EU.
[ 02-18-2003: Message edited by: Splinemodel ]</p>
<strong>With all due respect, France has no right to even have an opinion on this matter. They lost WWII in 3 days, and we had to come in and get their country back for them. If not their loyalty, they at least owe us silence.</strong><hr></blockquote>
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> The attorney has spoken,France is eternally doomed to silence because they lost WW2.
What do you suggest for UK then ? If UK wasn't an island she had been defeated in a couple of days also. The join army of UK and France have been defeated in three days.
PS : my respects are due for the courageous englishmen who resist against the nazis in WW2. I just pointed out that our nations where not ready to react to a modern war : the Blietzkrieg, France did not have the time to react, our frontiers where in common, and the Maginot line where not long enough especially in the Ardennes.
also: afrika bambaata? oh my ****ign god, best thread ever.
LOL <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
What is this? Fireside Chat?
Cheers
Fellows
<strong>So, when will Harald come and launch a tirade against Pax-Franco or Pax-Euro?
Oh, I forgot, only the US isn't allowed to try and apply pressure to other nations and only the US isn't allowed to act in their own interests.
[ 02-18-2003: Message edited by: Tulkas ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
I see that I've touched a raw nerve.
The US is allowed to apply pressure to other nations (as far as I'm concerned). The US IS allowed to act in its own interests. All countries are (as far as I'm concerned). The US is allowed to defend itself using military force too. The US constitution is, along with the South African freedom charter, one of the most moving documents I have ever read.
I didn't make up the phrase "Pax Americana;" Paul Wolfowitz, the US Deputy Defense Secretary did (or one of his co-writers on "Blueprint" did). Sorry fella.
What I don't think the US can do is act unilaterally against international law and consensus, and use military force to enforce the "Pax Americana," which, if I could just say AGAIN, is a -- and this is a quote -- "cornerstone of GWB's foreign policy" as part of the "Rebuilding America's Defenses" strategy as contained in that document I keep linking to.
You're damn right I launch tirades against the Pax Americana, because it's fcuked up if you're not an American. But to say it AGAIN and hope it goes in, I didn't make the phrase up and I didn't define it. The concept is a shift in how America intends to deal with world, and yes, it makes me angry.
As for Chirac, well he's lost me now too, just like Tony Blair (who is worse then Bush because he actually should understand what he's saying) lost me a few months back. We're not going to see France train militias in Bulgaria so it's not quite as bad as what the US does (you guys should rethink your policy of training insurgents -- the US is still doing it and it always bites you on the arse) but that does sound like the kind of diplomacy I despise.
[ 02-18-2003: Message edited by: Harald ]</p>
<strong>With all due respect, France has no right to even have an opinion on this matter. They lost WWII in 3 days, and we had to come in and get their country back for them. If not their loyalty, they at least owe us silence.</strong><hr></blockquote>
They may have lost France in 3 days, but many French fighter pilots (and Poles, Czechoslovaks, Belgians, Norwegians etc) escaped to Britain and subsequently flew for the RAF, helping to win the Battle of Britain and eventually turning the tide of war, making it possible for an allied invasion of Normandy to take place.
[ 02-18-2003: Message edited by: RodUK ]</p>