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The_Rorschach The_Rorschach is offline
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Old Mar 25th, 2003, 07:52 PM        France Seeks Post-War Profit
http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynam.../W/WAR_FRANCE_


Read that last line Kevin. This is why we will never be able to enact another Marshal Plan. We lost the world's trust, and until we get it back, we can't even attempt to place any infrastructure in place over in Afganistan or Iraq.

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Mar 25, 4:20 PM EST

France Seeks Big Role in Post-War Iraq

By KIM HOUSEGO
Associated Press Writer


PARIS (AP) -- Worried it could be shut out of business deals in postwar Iraq, France is drawing up plans to win French companies access to lucrative oil and reconstruction contracts, officials said Tuesday.

The government is determined that French companies will be part of rebuilding Iraq, despite President Jacques Chirac's vigorous opposition to the war, a Finance Ministry official said.

Gilles Munier, an executive board member of the French-Iraq Association for Economic Cooperation, said business leaders and government representatives were studying how to gain a foothold in postwar Iraq.

He said a meeting between France's most powerful business federation, government leaders and the French-Iraq Association for Economic Cooperation was scheduled for April 3.

The Finance Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed discussions were underway with business leaders about Iraq.

Some French are concerned that a U.S.-led administration in Iraq will favor companies from the United States and other pro-war countries while penalizing companies from France and other war opponents.

The Bush administration awarded a $4.8 million contract Monday to a Seattle-based company to rebuild Iraq's only deep-water port. Washington is expected to announce similar deals soon.

Officials in Paris say French firms' experience in working in Iraq would be an advantage.

French companies - many with ties to Baghdad stretching back decades - have established themselves as the largest suppliers of goods to Iraq since a U.N. trade embargo was partially lifted in 1996.

In 2001, France exported $705 million worth of goods to Iraq within the framework of the United Nations' now-frozen oil-for-food program. Communications equipment maker Alcatel clinched a $75 million contract to upgrade Baghdad's phone network, and Renault sold $75 million worth of tractors and farming vehicles to Iraq.

French oil giant TotalFinaElf probably has the biggest stake. It spent six years in the 1990s doing preparatory work on two giant oil fields and has signed two tentative agreements with Saddam to develop them.

Munier said he believes American companies will have difficulties in Iraq because of widespread anger against the U.S.-led bombing campaign.

"I don't see how American executives can work when their lives will be at risk," he said. "There will be such hatred toward Americans."

Munier criticized French companies for negotiating with American companies for a piece of their businesses in Iraq, saying that such "collaboration" would damage the image of French business among Iraqis.

Differences over how to run Iraq after the war have put added strain on already tense relations between the United States and several European countries.

France opposes any U.S. reconstruction plan that would sideline United Nations development agencies, multilateral organizations and non-governmental aid groups.

Chirac has warned that France would vote against any U.N. Security Council resolution that would give "the American and British belligerents the right to administer Iraq."
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theapportioner theapportioner is offline
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Old Mar 25th, 2003, 08:06 PM       
We lost the world's trust, and until we get it back, we can't even attempt to place any infrastructure in place over in Afganistan or Iraq.

You think so? The US, if anyone, has the resources for it, and has the ability to do it alone. I'm just not convinced the Bush administration, or the majority of Americans, have the resolve to do anything significant. Nor do they have a clue as to how to make democracy work in a vastly different cultural context from ours. You can't just take the American system and transplant it anywhere, expecting it to work nicely. Fixing bridges and oil wells is pretty trivial compared to what's really needed. By tabling the question until after the war's over, I fear that after the initial euphoria, different groups here and abroad and in Iraq will squabble over this and that, and nothing substantial will get done. Iraq, eventually, will probably be turned into a loose confederation of states drawn upon ethnic and religious boundaries, but I am very pessimistic that the Middle East will be a significantly safer place, in regards to our national security.
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theapportioner theapportioner is offline
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Old Mar 25th, 2003, 08:09 PM       
Anyway, on France -- I'm not surprised at all that Chirac wants a piece of the action, and the oil. Many many countries are guilty of this sort of colonialism of the Middle East.
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The_Rorschach The_Rorschach is offline
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Old Mar 25th, 2003, 08:20 PM       
The French economy has been in violation of the stability pact for the past three years. Their whole objection to this war is based upon the, almost unavoidable, financial dive their country will take asa result of losing the oil contracts they had set up. Especially after all the work and money put into the project already. But that is neither here nor there. Avanti!

CLA: "You think so? The US, if anyone, has the resources for it, and has the ability to do it alone."

Sure. We CAN do it. It's not a question of aptittude, its a question of support. Be serious a moment, if the world doesn't support this war. Will they support us placing a puppet king in power? Because that is ultimately how the French and Germans are going to see it. They've let their prejudice blind and bind them.

"I'm just not convinced the Bush administration, or the majority of Americans, have the resolve to do anything significant."

Money is the great motivater, and there is enough cash going to be cropping up for rebuilding efforts that the French are already trying to steal a piece of the pie before the war is even won.

"Nor do they have a clue as to how to make democracy work in a vastly different cultural context from ours."

We did it in Japan, and it doesn't get more vastly different than that.

"You can't just take the American system and transplant it anywhere, expecting it to work nicely."

We don't even try. We plant the seeds, but ultimately its their garden. They can make it work, Like S. Korea, or they can let it die.


"Fixing bridges and oil wells is pretty trivial compared to what's really needed."

An economic base is essential to any fledgling government. Our Forefathers wrote at length on that, as I'm sure you'll remeber. I'd rather see schools, universities and libraries built personally, because a education is the difference between a backward country and a proserous one, but its not my decision.

"Iraq, eventually, will probably be turned into a loose confederation of states drawn upon ethnic and religious boundaries, but I am very pessimistic that the Middle East will be a significantly safer place, in regards to our national security."

Just a stepping stone friend. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will Iraq be reborn in less than a year. The Middle East may never know peace, but if we don't try, we're only another aspect of the problem.
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