A U.S. Slander Campaign Against France?

In Paris the talk is of an anti-France campaign, of lies and false allegations fed into the grapevine by circles in the U.S. government who are determined to discredit France because of its staunch opposition to the war against Iraq. Washington, however, is playing innocent. U.S. Defense Minister Donald Rumsfeld claims to know nothing about any such “campaign”.

Amassing allegations

But France, which has been keeping tabs on the accusations hurled across the Atlantic, is fed up. From allegations of organizing French passports for fleeing Iraqis, to rumors of having delivered missile technology to the Iraq powers, what France did next is topic of the month. Having counted eight such stories doing the rounds in American newspapers, the French ambassador to the U.S. decided enough was enough and wrote a letter to Congress and the White House calling for a stop to the falsehoods. What puzzles him most is why the allegations should be attributed to officials, as they are.

White House denial

The U.S. government has responded to the ambassador's consternation with an official shrug of the shoulders. Scott McCallan, a Whitehouse spokesman, said he knows nothing about any of it. He has sworn that the French government position on Iraq has nothing to do with changing "french fries" to "freedom fries." He says the White House stance is to look forward and to how they can work together with France in the future.

But there is no getting away from the fact that tension between the two nations is having some far-reaching consequences. The marble used for grave stones at Arlington Memorial Cemetery will no longer be ordered from France and the U.S. Marines will no longer receive their rations from a French contractor.

When asked about relations with France, Rumsfeld said the U.S. wants to work closely with those countries that want to work with the U.S., "and that logically leads you to countries that are on a certain relationship with us." Paris says that is just another slap in the face, because like neighboring Germany, that relationship has gone sour.

Calling the shots

As Rumsfeld was busy denying the existence of any anti-France campaign, he cited the upcoming air show in Paris, saying: “It’s not as if people won’t be going from the United States, it may be at a certain level, but…” It was only later that a Pentagon employee filled in the gaps which Rumsfeld left so conspicuously open, and confessed that this year the U.S. would only be sending half as many aircraft to the show as in the previous year.

When asked if he considered U.S. behavior towards the French as some kind of punishment, the Defense Minister paused for thought before saying: “Oh gosh, you know, I guess it’s a reality…”