Pave: Mr. Arab

Le jour 136 de Sarko

Chirac conoce perfectamente la realidad. Sus servicios de inteligencia se lo han explicado. Los árabes le están transmitiendo a Chirac un mensaje muy claro: Sadam Hussein debe irse. El problema es que Chirac se cree Mister Arab y en realidad les está haciendo la vida imposible. Pero yo no quiero tener ninguna rivalidad con Chirac. Tenemos puntos de vista diferentes, pero yo quisiera que eso fuera todo. Dale los mejores recuerdos de mi parte. ¡De verdad! Cuanto menos rivalidad sienta él que existe entre nosotros será mejor para todos.

[Chirac knows the reality [of the situation] perfectly. Their intelligence services have explained it to him. The Arabs are transmitting a very clear message to Chirac: Saddam Hussein must go. The problem is that Chirac sees* himself as Mister Arab and in fact he is making their life impossible. But I do not want to have any rivalry with Chirac. We have different points of view, but I would like that to be all. Give him my best regards. Really! The less rivalry he feels between us the better for all.]

George W. Bush,
President of the United States,
at a war council, commenting on Then-Jack
(Crawford TX, February 22, 2003)
attended by Spain's Then-President José María Aznar et al.
from a transcript made by Javier Rupérez,
Spain's Then-Ambassador to the U.S.,
obtained and published by El Pais, September 26, 2007

[Translation hat tip: European Tribune**]

Ah. [Pause.] But as Pave regulars know, Then-Jack, Now Ex-Jack was not Mr. Arab.

What chagrined the French leader most was that, to his horror, he found out that Arab leaders, in fact, resented France's attitude. Officially hostile to the war in public, most Arab leaders in private reproached France for championing Saddam Hussein's cause. After the war, that attitude was translated into a virtual freeze of Franco-Arab relations and a significant decline in commercial exchanges.

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* Sp.: cree → creer = To think, to believe. So we might render this: The problem is that Chirac believes himself [to be] Mister Arab... Seems to better capture Jack.

** Click the link for an English translation that tracks to the published Spanish transcript.

PFFT (What is this?): GWB sends his regards ½ | Rayonnement français 0