Frankish Empire Alert!


Our "pals" are at it again:

Germany and France are working on a broad disarmament plan for Iraq designed to avoid war, including the deployment of U.N. soldiers throughout the country, reconnaissance flights and a tripling of the number of weapons inspectors, a magazine reported Saturday.

The plan could be presented to the U.N. Security Council as a resolution, the weekly Der Spiegel said, though it was unclear how the two countries or the United Nations would win Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's approval for carrying it out.

No fooling? How naive do you have to be, to think this would work any better than the current inspections? These bozos must have been born with bureaucracy in the blood. William Grim at the Iconoclast:

And Herr Fischer, a million more weapons inspectors will not change the course of Saddam's regime. Remember Theresienstadt, the "model" concentration camp that your country built to deceive the Red Cross inspectors during WWII? All the happy Jews dancing and playing in orchestras for the benefit of a public relations offensive? After the inspectors left, the Jews were exterminated.

Meanwhile, the Euroweenies are also driving the last nails in the coffin of NATO:

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Saturday branded as "inexcusable" moves by France, Germany and Belgium to stall NATO planning for the protection of Turkey in the event of a war in Iraq.

Rumsfeld said if a three-week deadlock at NATO is not ended, Washington and other allies will provide defense for Turkey anyway, and NATO's credibility would suffer a severe blow.

I'm reminded of Christopher Hitchen's rant, The Rat That Roared:

However, the conduct of Jacques Chirac can hardly be analyzed in these terms. Here is a man who had to run for re-election last year in order to preserve his immunity from prosecution, on charges of corruption that were grave. Here is a man who helped Saddam Hussein build a nuclear reactor and who knew very well what he wanted it for. Here is a man at the head of France who is, in effect, openly for sale. He puts me in mind of the banker in Flaubert's "L'Education Sentimentale": a man so habituated to corruption that he would happily pay for the pleasure of selling himself.

As if that wasn't enough hilarity, back at the United Nations, "Sophie Cannon" let off a squib:

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned the United States against launching a unilateral attack on Iraq.

He argued that action under a UN umbrella would have greater legitimacy and better odds of success.

Doing anything under the auspices of the bloated talk shop has no legitimacy except in the minds of the Kool Aid drinkers. As for success, we're still cleaning up the UN sponsored mess from the 1st Gulf War.

On this fishing trip, it is clear what the usual suspects are doing. They shouldn't be surprised that the USA finds it amusing.