Richard Perle: France no longer an ally

Richard Perle, everyone's favorite Chickenhawk, has gone completely off the deep end.

France is no longer an ally of the United States and the NATO alliance "must develop a strategy to contain our erstwhile ally or we will not be talking about a NATO alliance" the head of the Pentagon's top advisory board said in Washington Tuesday.

Richard Perle, a former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration and now chairman of the Pentagon's Policy Advisory Board, condemned French and German policy on Iraq in the strongest terms at a public seminar organized by Iraqi exiles and American Middle East and security officials.

But while dismissing Germany's refusal to support military action against Iraq as an aberration by "a discredited chancellor," Perle warned that France's attitude was both more dangerous and more serious.

"France is no longer the ally it once was," Perle said. And he went on to accuse French President Jacques Chirac of believing "deep in his soul that Saddam Hussein is preferable to any likely successor."

This piece is chilling, to say the least, and points to a serious need to oust him from any official or semi-official capacity within this administration.

It's bad enough Bush has antagonized every single one of our enemies, now his subordinates (and Perle, despite his "pseudo-official" status within the administration, is the prime architect of Bush's Iraq policy) are making enemies of our allies.

Not to mention the damage Perle and his ilk within the administration are doing to the UN:

Perle went on to question whether the United States should ever again seek the endorsement of the U.N. Security Council on a major issue of policy, stressing that "Iraq is going to be liberated, by the United States and whoever wants to join us, whether we get the approbation of the U.N. or any other institution."

"It is now reasonable to ask whether the United States should now or on any other occasion subordinate vital national interests to a show of hands by nations who do not share our interests," he added.

(Thanks to reader TT for sending this my way.)

Posted February 04, 2003 03:25 PM | Comments (84)