French surprise in Haiti

When I first heard the announcement from the French Foreign Ministry in Paris, I thought it was a joke.

France is considering sending troops to Haiti, smack in the middle of America’s Caribbean back yard, to quell unrest against a Marxist-leaning president by fellow Haitians who reject his iron grip on power.

Wasn’t that precisely what the Monroe Doctrine, announced in 1823 as Europe sought to subvert local governments in America’s backyard, was supposed to prevent?

The French claim they have 2,000 citizens living in Haiti, and must send a “rescue mission” to protect them during the violence. If that sounds familiar, it should. France has used similar pretexts in Congo, Ivory Coast, Chad and elsewhere whenever it has sought to reverse regimes, install friendlier dictators or otherwise protect French national interests.

Despite all the huffing and puffing of Foreign Minister Dominique Galouzeau de Villepin during the Iraq crisis last year, the French have shown repeatedly they will act without so much as a nod to the United Nations whenever they feel their interests require a rapid response.

The French move has apparently taken Secretary of State Colin Powell by surprise. As The Washington Times’ Sharon Behn reported Wednesday, Mr. de Villepin breathed not a word of his intentions when he met with Mr. Powell last Friday. But in Paris, the mecurial Frenchman was telling reporters France could intervene in a heartbeat, and pointed out France has 4,000 troops in nearby Martinique and Guadaloupe, French overseas departments.

The U.S. is in a quandary. The State Department says it is “deeply engaged” in Haiti to effect a peaceful resolution to the 12-day old revolt by armed “thugs,” but Mr. Powell has made it clear he does not favor sending U.S. troops. So now the French have sprung the trap on him.

The French foreign minister’s behavior is reminiscent of another time he sandbagged an unsuspecting Mr. Powell, that close advisers to the secretary of state tell me he has never forgotten — or forgiven.

The French betrayal of America during the Iraq crisis last year was almost legendary in proportion, but it was widely misreported by a Bush-hating press.

The version most Americans are familiar with has the French insisting the United States return to the United Nations for yet another Security Council resolution in January and February 2003, to authorize the use of force against Saddam Hussein. When U.S. diplomacy failed, President Bush ordered U.S. troops into Iraq unilaterally.

While those events did indeed occur, beneath the surface another dance was taking place, a devious dance that had been choreographed by French President Jacques Chirac and his preening foreign minister, Dominique Galouzeau de Villepin.

In fact, I can now reveal, Mr. Chirac personally telephoned President Bush at the White House to assure him France would support the United States at the U.N. in seeking a new Security Council resolution. Mr. Chirac even ordered the French Joint Chiefs of Staff to prepare units to be send to Iraq as part of a U.S.-led liberation army.

But on Jan. 20, 2003, Mr. de Villepin pulled the rug out from under Mr. Powell and the president, announcing behind Mr. Powell’s back at the United Nations that France would under no circumstances send troops to Iraq — in direct contradiction of those promises he and Mr. Chirac had made to the United States.

To this day, the French have remained unrepentant about their lies, apparently in the belief this is what big boys do when they play on the world stage.

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