Hailed by the French for Defying Bush, Iraq's President Calls Members of the "Resistance" What They Really Are

While their contempt for Prime Minister Iyad Allawi knows no bounds, the French love Iraq's President.

And no wonder: as Patrice Claude states in his first sentence of his portrait on the "amazing" Bedouin who holds a Saudi passport, "The Americans did not want Ghazi al-Yawar."

Before telling the Sheikh's story, Claude takes the time to poke fun at the Americans and the neo-cons. He goes on to wax admiringly on the 'humanitarian' who has "defied" George W Bush, who "never shrunk from speaking his mind to the occupier" (suggesting that anybody who does not challenge the Americans — "the occupier" is taken as a given — can be nothing but a boot-licker or a poodle), and who allegedly wants the Americans to leave as soon as possible. (I always thought that Dubya was supposed to appreciate leaders who were honest and who spoke their minds.)

It is almost as an aside that Claude drops three or four lines about the Sheikh's views on the "rebels",

those forces of evil who boast no program, no idea, and who defile religion.

While Iraq's president is in France for a visit, Jacques Chirac and Michel Barnier are trying to get their country to improve relations with both Iraq and Washington, writes Claire Tréan in one of those articles in which the independent newspaper does little else but rehash French government press releases and spell out the world situation as seen from the Quai d'Orsay (with itself as the incarnation of wisdom and reason).

Expressing the "sadness of the Iraqi people and government regarding the kidnapping of that innocent journalist" (Florence Aubenas), Ghazi al-Yawar made another pointed remark whose (not so) subtle message it is not at all certain was understood by French leaders and media entranced by an Iraqi official who "defies" the Americans:

That makes but one more manifestation of blind terrorism which makes no distinction between human beings, religions, gender, or nationality.

Yes, that's right. The man lionized by Patrice Claude — a representative of an élite hailing the "resistance" to an "illegal occupation" — called the members of said resistance terrorists, and terrorists for whom the victims' nationality makes no difference.

Update: Following the historic Iraq election, President Ghazi al-Yawer derides one of the central tenets of French foreign policy as "complete nonsense"…