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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 27-Sep-2019
27-Sep-19 World View -- The fraud of France's Jacques Chirac in the Iraq war

Web Log - September, 2019

27-Sep-19 World View -- The fraud of France's Jacques Chirac in the Iraq war

Jacques Chirac and Saddam Hussein's Oil-for-Food scam

by John J. Xenakis

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

The fraud of France's Jacques Chirac in the Iraq war
Jacques Chirac and Saddam Hussein's Oil-for-Food scam

The fraud of France's Jacques Chirac in the Iraq war

Jacques Chirac on March 11, 2007, shortly before stepping down as president. After leaving office, he was found guilty of misuse of public money, breach of trust and illegal conflict of interest (RFI)

Jacques Chirac on March 11, 2007, shortly before stepping down as president. After leaving office, he was found guilty of misuse of public money, breach of trust and illegal conflict of interest (RFI)

Jacques Chirac, who was president of France between 1995 and 2007, died on Thursday. He had previously served two terms as prime minister, from 1974-76 and 1986-88, and was mayor of Paris from 1977-1995.

According to the current president, Emmanuel Macron:

"We are remembering tonight with emotion and affection his freedom, his personality, the talent he had to reconcile simplicity and grandeur, proximity and dignity, love of the motherland and openness to the universal."

However, another French politician said anonymously: "People think Chirac is a decent guy, but not very bright. In fact, he's exactly the opposite."

In fact, Chirac was extremely controversial as president, although the thing that he was most praised for was standing up to President George Bush and refusing to join America and Britain in the 2003 war against Saddam Hussein in Iraq. According to British journalist Sophie Pedder:

"Much to criticise about his time as French president (twice), prime minister (twice) and Paris mayor. But Jacques Chirac (1932-2019) was right on Iraq, prescient about multi-polarity, brave to acknowledge France's responsibility under Vichy--and an improbable icon of French cool pic.twitter.com/KHkQE9gHaM"

Born in 1932, he was too young to fight in World War II, but later in life he was praised for acknowledging France's collaboration with the Nazis during the war, including the deportation of Jews from France to Nazi concentration camps.

Jacques Chirac and Saddam Hussein's Oil-for-Food scam

As I recently described, the 2003 Iraq war occurred as the result of panic in the West over weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), 58 years after nuking of Japan in 1945 at the end of World War II. (See discussion of 58-Year Hypothesis in "2-Sep-19 World View -- Israel-Hezbollah-Lebanon border clash fizzles quickly, no repeat of 2006 war")

Saddam Hussein had used chemical weapons against the Kurds and the Iranians in 1988 at the end of the Iran/Iraq war, and had continued developing chemical weapons during the 1990s. Saddam refused UN WMD inspections under President Bill Clinton, and his response was to order bombing campaigns on military targets in Iraq.

However, military action did not go farther than that until 2003, 58 years after the nuking of Japan, as the age cohort of people who were children in 1945 suddenly became anxious that the WMDs would be used again, causing a general panic. (58-Year Hypothesis) Saddam was resolutely opposing UN inspections, and many people read this as a sign of guilt.

Most countries were convinced that Saddam was still developing WMDs, and many endorsed the British and American plan for a ground war in Iraq. The two major exceptions were Russia and France. In the case of Russia, it was thought that the reason was that the Russians still hoped to collect the $10 billion that Iraq owed to Russia, mainly for illegal arms deals.

Jacques Chirac was president of France at the time, and he announced that he would veto any UN Security Council resolution authorizing the military action. That's why so much of the mainstream media is heaping praise on Chirac.

Chirac insisted that his opposition to the Iraq war was principled, but an investigation revealed that Chirac and his family and some of his ministers were deeply implicated in a lucrative scam to divert millions of dollars of profits of the UN's oil-for-food program into their own private coffers.

So, in my opinion, Chirac does not deserve one bit of adulation he's been receiving these last two days. He opposed the Iraq war, because he didn't care how many people Saddam killed with WMDs, but he wanted to keep the fraudulent millions pouring into his coffers.

Chirac was formally charged in 2007 after he left office as president, losing immunity from prosecution. In 2011, he was found guilty of misuse of public money, breach of trust and illegal conflict of interest while he was mayor of Paris, and given a two-year suspended jail sentence.

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(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the Generational Dynamics World View News thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (27-Sep-2019) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 27-Sep-2019 27-Sep-19 World View -- The fraud of France's Jacques Chirac in the Iraq war

The fraud of France's Jacques Chirac in the Iraq war

Jacques Chirac and Saddam Hussein's Oil-for-Food scam

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 27-Sep-2019
27-Sep-19 World View -- The fraud of France's Jacques Chirac in the Iraq war