The two faces of Jacques Chirac

Spectrum by Joseph Perkins

Jacques Chirac claims to be saddened by insinuations that he's anti-American. I really like the United States, the French president professed, in an interview published this week in Time magazine.

"I visit often," he said. "I've studied there, worked as a forklift operator for Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis and as a soda jerk at Howard Johnson's." And, oh yes, he really loves our Yankee junk food.

But just when those of us on this side of the Atlantic were prepared to give Monsieur le President the benefit of the doubt, were willing to accept that his opposition to U.S. efforts to disarm Iraq -- by force, if necessary -- were based on high-minded principle rather than deep-seated animus toward the red, white and blue, then he shot off his mouth after a meeting of the European Union in Brussels.

Leaders of the European Union's 15 member nations had gathered for an emergency summit and concluded their meeting with a joint statement warning Saddam Hussein's rogue regime that it must disarm "immediately and fully."

"It is for the Iraqi regime to end this crisis by complying with the demands of the Security Council," the European leaders declared, adding that, "The Iraqi regime alone will be responsible for the consequences if it continues to flout the will of the international community and does not take this last chance."

In the aftermath of the summit, most of the European leaders were pleased they had managed to find common ground among themselves on the matter of Iraq. And they were relieved that they had gotten past differences on Iraq between the United States and certain European governments -- namely France, Germany and Belgium -- that played out in recent NATO meetings, during which Paris, Berlin and Brussels opposed defensive assistance to Turkey.

Then Chirac held a post-summit news conference. He was clearly perturbed that his fellow EU leaders, led by Britain's Tony Blair, had issued a statement on Iraq that came closer to the United States position than that of France and Germany. But instead of deriding Blair or Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi or other EU leaders who don't share his accommodationist approach to Saddam's regime, Chirac went on an angry tirade against East European nations, slated to join the European Union next year, that have voiced support for America's stance on Iraq.

The French premier was particularly peeved at the so-called Vilnius group -- the 10 East European nations that are former satellites of the Soviet Union -- whose leaders signed a statement earlier this month backing the United States on Iraq. That followed a similar pro-American letter signed last month by leaders of Britain, Italy, Spain, Demark, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Portugal that endorsed a position toward Baghdad contrary to the pacifist approach favored by Chirac and his German counterpart, Gerhard Schroeder.

"These countries have not been very well-behaved," said Chirac, referring to the Vilnius group. "They missed a great opportunity to shut up." Monsieur le President also suggested that the leaders of those nations had acted "recklessly" by not recognizing the "danger of aligning themselves too rapidly with the American position."

In effect, what Chirac told those EU candidate nations is that they are expected to take their marching orders from Paris and Berlin. The leaders of the East and West European nations that have issued statements supporting the United States in its campaign to disarm Hussein's regime have done so not because they are spoiling for war with Baghdad, not necessarily because they are seeking to curry favor with Washington, but because they fear a world in which a mass murderer like Hussein has at his disposal weapons of mass destruction.

Chirac maintains that Hussein can be persuaded to disarm by peaceful means. He would have the United Nations continue weapons inspections for some indeterminate time into the future, despite Baghdad's lack of cooperation.

To more than a few European leaders, Chirac's position brings to mind the West's acquiescence to the Soviet Union in the aftermath of World War II. "We certainly have seen the results of appeasement," said Latvia President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, whose country was occupied by the Soviets following the war. "It's much easier to tolerate a dictator when he's dictating over somebody else's life and not your own."

Chirac obviously does not like hearing those kinds of pronouncements by leaders of European Union wannabes like Latvia. But Vike-Freiberga and her fellow East European leaders are on the right side of the Iraq crisis.

Joseph Perkins is a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune and can be reached at Joseph.Perkins@UnionTrib.com.