Ground Zero wrote:
> "trg" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
>
news:[email protected]...
>> Ground Zero wrote:
>>> "trg" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
>>>
news:[email protected]...
>>>>
>>>> Buy French made products. We need the jobs.
>>>
>>> Apparently, black market business with Sadaam Hussein in
>>> violation of the UN trade embargo and it's Oil For Food
>>> program didn't provided enough of a boost to France's
>>> economy.....
>>>
>>> <snip>
>> Apparently neither did years of US arms sales to Iraq,
>> turning a blind eye while Saddam illegally shiped his oil
>> out through US allies like Turkey (to be bought primarily
>> by the gas hungry U S of
>> A), selling of biological precursors approved by the the
>> USDA (botulism among others) and embargo violating
>> deals with Saddam by Haliburton while Cheney was in
>> charge.
>>
>> Saddam always preferred to buy American when he could.
>> "We need the jobs".
>>
>> Buy from France. A country that actually fully supports
>> professional bike racing at all levels.
>>
>
> My mom lives in France.... the Tour actually rode right
> under her window one year. The French on whole hate
> Americans. Yet, there are thousands of white crosses on
> the bluffs above Normandy commorating the lives of
> American servicemen who died to free a country that did
> very little to defend itself against ******'s armies.
>
> Welcome to Current Events 101..... US supported Hussein in
> Iraq's war against Iran, at a time when it was the lesser
> of the two evils... not a simple solution, but one that
> was necessary at the time. Blackmarket Iraqi oil went to
> Germany, France, and Russia.... well documented by the UN.
> It didn't go to the US.
>
> Please don't keep me in suspense... in what way did
> Haliburton violate the embargo?
With all due respect to your mom, I have lived in France for
the last 10 years. The French do not hate Americans and if
you actually talk to to people here, rather than preach at
them (or get your worldview from Fox), you'll see that they
feel a great deal of gratitude to us for our our sacrifice
in WWII. It's a source of great frustration to me that this
view persists in the US. But that's the way stereotypes are.
My aunt is currently visiting me. It's her first time in
France. Every day she says she can't get over how friendly
the people have been to her. "I thought the French hated
Americans".
On the whole, the French do not like much of what the US
government is currently doing in the world. But, then
they're not alone in that. Much of the US and most of the
rest of the world feels the same.
The US and France governments have both been smarmy and
hypocritical when it came to dealing with Saddam's Iraq
before and after sanctions when it suited them and when it
was to their advantage. There were 500 trucks a day
hauling Saddam's oil from Iraq into Turkey in violition of
the oil for food program and the embargo. To think that
the US didn't know about it and look the other way because
of the benefit to it's ally Turkey stretches credulity
beyond reason.
The kickbacks from the oil sales were reported to have gone
to individuals from Russia, France, England, Switzerland,
Jordan, Turkey, etc (it seems that Saddam had a policy
against dealing with Americans, but that possibility has not
been totally ruled out even by the Republicans in Congress).
The oil itself went to the usual companies like texaco shell
chevron, etc.