Contrary to popular thinking by many U.S. citizens, France is not protecting its oil reserves by opposing the Bush administration's use of force against Iraq, according to Justin Vaisse.
"The reality is that oil exports and imports with Iraq account for .3 percent of all French oil, so the argument that France wants to protect Iraq for oil is just not correct," Vaisse said.
Vaisse, a former speechwriter for French Defense Minister Alain Richard and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, spoke to a crowd of about 300 on the ins and outs of French policy on the U.S.-Iraqi confrontation Tuesday afternoon in the Dumke Auditorium.
Vaisse said American backlash against French opposition to war with Iraq are based on nothing more than stereotypes.
Vaisse gave four examples of these stereotypes, including the protection of French petroleum interests in Iraq.
Another stereotype many Americans have is the sense many French citizens are overtly anti-American, he said.
"Anti-Americanism has been more on the decline than on the rise," Vaisse said.
According to Vaisse, 73 percent of the French population supported the use of force by the United States in Afghanistan, and that opposition to American policy is not a blanket reaction.
"When tens of thousands of people demonstrated in the streets of Paris on Feb. 15, it wasn't an expression of anti-Americanism but against Bush's policy toward Iraq," Vaisse said.
Another U.S. stereotype Vaisse tried to debunk is that French opposition to U.S. policies related to Iraq is an effort to check America's role as a superpower.
"This argument is also not convincing...there is no mission to oppose U.S. power as such," Vaisse said.
Vaisse said French opposition to American policies are issue-specific and not a general backlash.
"There's no grand strategy to position France to do one thing or another based on the United States," he said.
Finally, Vaisse addressed the argument that France is a pacifist country simply opposed to the use of force against Iraq.
"When it comes to using military resources, France is no more shy than any other country," he said.
Vaisse pointed to a 1995 decision by French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac in which he ordered French troops to overtake a bridge controlled by Serbian forces who took several U.N. peacekeepers hostage.
Vaisse also gave the crowd three reasons why Chirac is opposed to the use of force in Iraq.
According to Vaisse, Chirac and the French populace fear terror attacks stemming from involvement with Iraq.
"There's a deep belief that war would set off even more acts of terror against French interests," he said.
Another reason Vaisse offered is a firm belief by many French policymakers that Iraq is in no way related to the al Qaeda terror cells the U.S. sought to destroy following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"I think it's fair to say that there are al Qaeda cells everywhere, so why not bomb the U.K. or New Jersey or any number of places?" Vaisse said. "There are no more terror cells in Iraq than there are anywhere else."
Lastly, Vaisse said Chirac doesn't want to compromise western Islamic relations, since there are between 4 to 8 million Muslims living in France.
"Chirac just doesn't want Middle East policies to keep reverberating in France...nobody will shed a tear on Saddam, and we'll all be happy when he's gone, but Chirac knows that region of the world pretty well, and he has a personal view that war is not a good thing right now," Vaisse said.
Vaisse said the French are committed to fighting terrorism, but not necessarily through the use of force.
"Of course we should fight terrorism, but the idea is that a war in Iraq could go against the Islamic modernization process and create new enemies for the U.S.," he said.
Vaisse was the sixth of a nine-part guest series on the Iraq Crisis. The lecture is sponsored by the Office of the President, the College of Humanities, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the department of political science and the Middle East Center.
abenson@chronicle.utah.edu
