France backs Annan's 'illegal war' view

[acmavm]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B6DF33D5-41BF-4AD8-BF8D-9F1402E497A9.htm

Saturday 18 September 2004, 18:55 Makka Time, 15:55 GMT

France backed UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's description of the US-led war on Iraq as illegal

<snip>


"You well know that what explains our country's disagreement with the way the war was carried out was that it clearly did not at that time abide by international law, and there was not a clear request from the United States to start that action," French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said on Friday.

That was "traditionally" France's view from the start, he added.

"We have always considered that international law constitutes the framework for any action, notably against terrorism or for stability in the world," he said.

<snip>

Washington hit back on Thursday by claiming it considered that a previous UN resolution passed four months prior to the conflict gave it sufficient authority to wage its action because Iraq had refused to surrender suspected stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.

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[shrumbody]

1. Unfortunately,

I think this will convince more ppl. that Kerry's bid to get more allies to help us out in Iraq will be futile. Since the war seems to be the major issue, this can't be good for JFK.

[MASSAFRA]

2. Wrong

Kerry did not invade Iraq, Bush did. With a new person in charge (Kerry) more countries may be willing to help. If a country would help Bush they would be aiding in the commission of an illegal act.

[Mikimouse]

3. I differ with you on that...

Kerry has done nothing to crap on the UN, and has offered to involve our international allies in formulating plans for the future. The only person this is not good for is *, who thought he could walk all over the UN and get away with it. He made many new enemies for us, and unless we get a leader who is willing and able to garner the support of the UN, we will pay the price in the long run.

[acmavm]

4. I don't see it that way. It should be framed by Kerry this way:

Many nations, in fact even the United Nations, considers this war to be an illegal act of aggression on a defenseless country who had no WMDs, no illegal chemical agents, and above all was no threat to any other nation. bush* was given the power to go to war, but only after certain conditions were met. bush* failed to abide by these conditions and instead launched an unprecedented war under the false pretenses of 'pre-emption'.

There is no way for us to turn back the hands of time, so what all civilized nations of this world must do is to help the Iraqi people rebuild their country. The bush* administration is taking the money allocated for this purpose and using it to build air bases in order to establish a permanent occupation of that country. We have to turn this situation around. The first thing we have to do is get these madmen and warmongering chickenhawks out of the government of the United States. Until that happens, the situation in Iraq will continue to deteriorate until the possibility of civil war becomes a reality. The bush* administration has absolutely no idea of what to do in order to bring some semblance of peace plans on the bush* cabal radar scope is how to sit safely in Washington making billions off the deaths of American troops and Iraqi civilians.

[acmavm]

5. Oops, sorry, posted twice. Suddenly I've lost half my computer screen.

Don't have a clue as to what the hell's going on.