Departing U.S. ambassador says France made about-face on...war in Iraq

[Rose Siding]

PARIS - The U.S. ambassador to France announced his departure Tuesday with a parting shot against President Jacques Chirac, saying he actively worked against U.S. interests in the lead-up to the war in Iraq.

Speaking with the candor of a diplomat with one foot on the plane, Howard H. Leach said the United States was hugely disappointed by what he said was France's sudden change of heart before the war, suddenly coming out against the prospect of a U.S.-led military campaign and never explaining its about-face.

"Obviously France has the right to choose its opinion. But no leader of France ever in the past actually worked against the United States' interests," said the ambassador, speaking to a small group of reporters before his Saturday departure.

"When you have a friend actively working against you, it not only hurts your feelings, it makes you angry," he said.
....
"No one in the French government has ever explained that to us, and all we can do is speculate. We will perhaps never know exactly," said Leach. "Obviously, France had a reason for making that change but we do not know the reason."

Chirac had said war should be the last option and that U.N. weapons inspectors needed more time to investigate fears that Saddam Hussein's now-deposed regime had banned weapons. France also feared an invasion would inflame the Middle East as well as its own large Muslim community, the largest in western Europe.

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/12525.html

[still_one]

1. Mr. Ambassador, we didn't go into iraq because of WMDs

you lying scum bag, who is responsible for the deaths of Americans and Iraqiis alike

burn hell you bastard

[cybildisobedience]

3. and take your hurt feelings with you

[Rebel_with_a_cause]

9. as well as your delusions of adequacy

[warrens]

2. These people are just flat-out insane

Smirky the Giggling Murderer LIED about going to war, and France called him on it. As did Germany and several others. The deal appears to be, you do what we say. If we say jump, you say how high. If we say go to war, you shut up and do what we tell you.

The arrogance of this punk is unbelievable.

[whistle]

4. U.S. ambassador to France, Howard H. Leach certainly has....

...kept a very lower public profile until now? I never heard of the guy, I have no idea who he is, what he has done as ambassador to France or even why he was appointed. But now that he is leaving, he makes his voice heard. This has been another "do nothing appointment".

[Binka]

6. Leach Is A Leech

His wife was fucking Poppy in the late 80's. Don't ask me how I know I just KNOW. They are wealthy San Franciscans and most of the city if not all of the city except the RW doyenne despise Gretch.

Gretchen is a sl**. Trust me I know her.

[wakeme2008]

11. Yes but does she do French

:evilgrin:

[Binka]

13. Honey She'd Do Anything Or Anyone If They Had A Big Enough Wallet

She is a shoe freak too, not that I have a problem with that just sayin'.

[0007]

29. Sounds like she should team up with Jeff Gannon, they could

pimp each off for big big buck.

[Rebel_with_a_cause]

10. No need to ask if he spoke French

[Career Prole]

5. "When you have a friend actively working against you..."

"...it not only hurts your feelings, it makes you angry," he said.

Mr. Ambassador, friends don't let friends f*ck up the world.

[aneerkoinos]

17. Yup

When a "friend" actively works against you, and all the people of the world, all the people start to realize US is not a friend but an enemy.

[karynnj]

7. I agree with every word Chirac says in this excerpt

In fact, it sounds identical to the position of John Kerry, Howard Dean, Wes Clark .... at that point.

Now I see why the Republicans thought Kerry looked and seemed "French" - better that than following Bush. Seriously, what is disturbing is the way this is reported. France "actively worked against us" - Well, yeah they disagreed with us. Why did they change - they and Kerry didn't - nor did Bush, he just seemed to. The inspectors were destroying weapons and searching the country, most of the people in the world thought continuing that made more sense than attacking.

[Selteri]

8. He is right, France's Government have beenn our biggest Supporters

in Europe for many many years, since the birth of this country we have never had more than minor spats with the French only going against the US rarely (Not never). The French, Germand and Russians AGREEING on the Iraq war was unprecidented, it's so uncommon as China saying, "Maybe we made a few human rights mistakes." or someone saying, "Wow, that Prince Charles, he's amazingly intelligent, witty and handsom."

Maybe there is a reason they disagreed. it doesn't seeem like it would be that hard to analyze.

[Hobarticus]

12. Where do they find these turds for these jobs?

That was awfully brave diplomacy as you're getting on the plane.

[robbo2356]

14. A lasting and true Friendship

A lasting and true friendship is borne out of mutual respect. For each friend to be able to accept criticism and point of view from the other, period .

Apparantly Mr Leach is confusing friendship with subservience .

[newyawker99]

23. Hi robbo2356!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[wolfgirl]

33. welcome to the DU!!

:toast:

[robbo2356]

15. A lasting and true friendship

A lasting and true friendship is borne out of mutual respect.
For each friend to be able to accept criticism and point of
view from the other, period .  

Apparantly Mr Leach is confusing friendship with subservience
.

[Rose Siding]

16. The new envoy: Bush fundraiser and cousin

WASHINGTON - President Bush has chosen Craig Stapleton, a cousin by marriage and top campaign fund-raiser, to be the next U.S. ambassador to France, the White House said Tuesday.

If the Senate confirms Stapleton, a Democrat, he will get the plum post in Paris after serving earlier in the Bush administration as ambassador to the Czech Republic.

The mission would make Stapleton the top diplomat in a European ally that has had rocky relations with the United States in recent years, most notably over the Iraq war that France opposed.

Stapleton, whose wife, Debbie, is the president's cousin, was the U.S. ambassador in Prague from August 2001 to January 2004, when he returned to his home in Greenwich, Conn., to help Bush's successful re-election campaign. Stapleton and his wife were among the top fund-raisers for Bush in both the 2000 and 2004 election cycles.

The former New York real estate executive served on the Peace Corps board of directors when Bush's father was president. He also was a partner with Bush in the Texas Rangers baseball team.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&ncid=693&e=4&u=/ap/20050412/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_french_ambassador

Sorta screams CIA.

[DrDebug]

18. I don't recall Bush explaining his lies about WMD either? n/t

[Media_Lies_Daily]

19. He must not be old enough to remember DeGaulle and his withdrawal....

....of France from NATO in 1966 and his demand that US forces leave French territory.

Leach sounds like an appropriate name for a NeoCon official.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

20. If it hadn't been for France's very active role in defeating the....

...British at Yorktown, we might still be a member of the British Commonwealth, or an independent country like Canada that still owes allegiance to the British Crown.

At Yorktown, the French fleet drove off the British fleet and supplied enough troops to hold half of the fortifications surrounding the British.

[davhill]

21. Friends don't let friends

Invade drunk.

[Judi Lynn]

22. The man's a real Bush-league player, isn't he?

Avoid maturity at all costs. God forbid he should just leave as a dignified, civilized gentleman, or his best imitation of one.



-Ambassador Leach and wife opening the SLAL
Food Show in Paris-

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
Embassy Row

FRANCE
Howard Leach
$399,359 to the GOP*


President Bush stuck with tradition in his nomination for ambassador to France, naming a very wealthy -- and extremely generous -- contributor to serve in Paris, considered one of the most prestigious foreign posts.

Howard Leach, a successful investor involved in numerous business interests, has a net worth reported to be in the billions. He is the CEO of Leach Capital Corp. and president of Foley Timber and Land Co., which is based in Florida.

He is also a big-time Republican donor. Leach contributed $225,559 to GOP candidates and party committees in the 1999-2000 election cycle, including $190,300 in soft money. His wife, Gretchen, gave $63,800 to Republican candidates and party committees -- $32,800 of which in soft money.

Leach was one of the Bush campaign's "Pioneers," who raised at least $100,000 for the campaign. He contributed $100,000 to the Bush-Cheney Inaugural Committee and $5,000 to the Bush-Cheney recount fund, a contribution matched by his wife.

All told, Howard and Gretchen Leach gave $289,359 to GOP candidates and party committees in 1999-2000, $10,000 to the Bush-Cheney recount fund, and $100,000 to the Bush-Cheney inaugural committee.
(snip/...)

http://www.opensecrets.org/bush/ambassadors/leach.asp

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Next Ambassador Stapleton with Laura Bush
.jpg

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's an archived DU post from 2003, Leach when he was still in his "ambassador" mode, before he turned and fired at France:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=7171&forum=DCForumID71&archive=yes

[passy]

24. Big fat juicy petrol powered contracts.

"Obviously, France had a reason for making that change but we do not know the reason."

Well France knew that if the US was allowed to invade, they would never get anymore of that sweet Iraqi oil or any more building contracts on the scale they had before the first Gulf War.
If the inspectors had proved that Iraq was no longer a threat this would have allowed France and Germany to ask for the dropping of the sanctions.
They would then have been the first back into Iraq since the Iraqis would be unwilling to let the US have a share of their oil and their reconstruction contracts.
Also the Iraqis would be interested in working with people they already knew.
A lot of Iraq's infrastructure and some of Saddam's numerous palaces were built by the French. What a bunch of traitors.
All the US ever did was provide Saddam with chemical weapons. He was supposed to kill Iranians and not Kurds with them, but hey, at least we didn't build his houses.

[Hand]

25. Adieu, trou de cul...

and none of that au revoir crap, either...

[daleo]

26. They thought the war would be illegal

And there would be no weapons of mass destruction.

It turns out they were right. That must really hurt this baby's feelings.

[Javaman]

27. Mr. Leach, Perhaps France didn't go into Iraq for the simple reason...

That they have much better intelligence than we do...

You can interpret that statement anyway you wish :) lol

[booley]

28. A lot of assumptions and a simple answer...

I am not going to go into his motives. I have no idea what they are. But right off I see a lot of ASSumptions.

"...he actively worked against U.S. interests in the lead-up to the war in Iraq."

Firstly, how has wasting time, Lots of Money and LOTS AND LOTS OF LIVES to stop WMDS that weren't there and Terrorists that weren't there when we invaded (but are there now and growing stronger becuase of our Forces presence there) in OUR INTEREST? It has not been explained to me how weakening our security and giving free propaganda to our terrorist enemies has helped our country.

Why would France be under any obligation to help Shrub ruin his (OUR!) own country? Indeed, if France was our friend, why wouldn't they try to stop us from making a huge mistake that would hurt them and us?

"....No one in the French government has ever explained that to us, and all we can do is speculate."

Secondly, as the build-up to war came closer it was pretty clear that the Shrubbery didn't have credible evidence that Saddam was the threat they claimed he was, that the US wasn't interested in supporting the inspections (even though they would have corroborated the Shrubbery's claims if they were true) and that Shrub was going to invade no matter what happened.

Add to this that France is a DEMOCRACY and that they had THOUSANDS of it's citizens protesting against the war. Last I heard french politicans get elected by thier people.

So maybe the reason France pulled is quote simple.
Ever have to dal with somebody who was a real jerk but you were too polite to say they were a jerk but you still had to get rid of them? So when they asked why they were being thrown out of the party, you replied 'I think you know why" and slammed the door?

You're France and the Shrubbery is the Jerk. I imagine the reason Chirac didn't explain his about face is that he simply didn't know a diplomatic way of explaining that he didn't want to get involved in a war that was incredibly unpopular among his citizens based on the LIES of a WARMONGERING IDIOT.

But that's just what I'm seeing.

[CoffeeCat]

30. Yeah, and it's too bad the world doesn't have more Chiracs!

Chirac stood up and said that we were rushing to war and that the evidence of WMD was questionable.

Excuse me, but both of those assertions turned out to be TRUE.

HELLO!!!

For this nimrod to say that his "feelings were hurt." For the love of Pete, do these sickos treat the decision to go to war as if it's a personal favor to a fraternity buddy.

What the hell is wrong with the mentality in this administration?

Chirac stood up and said NO because it was the right thing to do.

A war is not a fraternity prank, you debased, inhuman scum!

This was more than a trip to the Food King!

[passy]

31. I think you all missed the point.

On paper Chirac's opposition to the war looked like the decent thing to do.
The only problem is that Chirac is only slightly less of a corrupted scum bag than the shrub is.
His motives had nothing noble about them.
If you read my previous post, you will understand that this was all about petrol and reconstruction contracts.
The fact that only recently both France and Germany let Wolfovitz be head of the world bank shows you how hypocritical these people are.
As for someone who mentioned fair elections in France, Chirac is under investigation for inventing voters etc... dating back form the time he was mayor of Paris.
And the only reason he was reelected was that he faced Le Pen the head of the Front National a neo-fascist party. He ended up getting 80% of the vote since most people voted for him to keep the other guy out.
There is definitely nothing honorable about Chirac.

[rooboy]

32. This isn't news. France's about-face has been known about for years.

A few politicians have mentioned how France said it would be behind the US all the way. They promised 30,000 troops if I recall correctly.

But as de Gaulle once said, "People have friends. Countries have interests". It's more an indication of how naiive the Bush administration is.

[Dawgs]

34. Sounds like the French were the only ones working in the United States...

best interest. God knows the United States wasn't.

[struggle4progress]

35. Bush taps cousin for Paris post

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/04/12/us.ambassador.ap/

Leech lost his job to a member of The Family, so it's no wonder he's bitter ...