Arab Spring Showed France Error of Its Ways

France’s minister of Foreign Affairs says his government’s past support for authoritarian regimes and dictatorships in the Middle East was misguided and short sighted, but is now determined to provide the region “a helping hand” to develop its democratic initiatives.

“The Arab Springs showed us that [the regional stability] was just an illusion” Foreign Affairs Minister Alain Juppe told a press conference at the Council on Foreign Relations this morning in New York. “The protests are a great chance to institute democracy and the rule of law as well as peace and stability”

Juppe said the international community has “a moral and political duty” to help Egypt, Tunisia and Libya in their transitions and argued only free elections could ensure national legitimacy and against the radicalization of political discourse.

The French Minster of Foreign Affairs also outlined the Deauville initiative, a G8 plan to support new democratic governments. He says the $38 billion initiative will help carry out transitions and reforms for the creation of new democratic entities in the Middle East.

“This is your revolution. We stand alongside you” Mr. Juppé said, repeating the message he delivered during a visit to Tunis last week. 

Ivory Coast: Peacekeeping Chief Defends UN Role In Gbagbo Ouster

The head of the UN’s peacekeeping operations says the world body had “no other option” when it intervened in Ivory Coast this week, even if that move paved the way for the arrest of hold out president Laurent Gbagbo by his opponent Alassane Ouattara’s forces.

 Alain Le Roy told reporters at a news conference UN actions were within the framework of the Security Council resolution allowing UNOCI to take “all necessary means” to prevent the use of heavy weapons against civilians.

 Less than a week after Laurent Gbagbo’s arrest, the UN continues to draw criticism from those who say it went beyond its mandate and effectively took sides in a civil war.

 The United Nations and France have repeatedly tried to distance themselves from Gbagbo’s arrest, insisting all week that Ouattara’s forces had carried out the final raid on the former President’s compound without outside help.

Le Roy did however concede that UN and French intervention to protect civilians from heavy weapons set the stage for Gbagbo’s ousting.

 “ I agree, it is clear that the forces loyal to President Ouattara took advantage of that, and attacked the residence.” said Le Roy “Our intention was not any kind of regime change, that is not our mandate. Our mandate is to target heavy weapons when they are used, they were used every day of that week. So we had no option but to do it.

Le Roy said Gbagbo should have known UN retaliation against heavy artillery could give Ouattara’s forces an important advantage.

 “The fact that the forces loyal to Ouattara took advantage of it, there nothing we can do about it.” said Le Roy.“If Ouattara had heavy weapons targeting us or targeting the civilian population, we would have done the same.”

 The new Ouattara government may have trouble moving to its goal of national reconciliation if domestic opinion perceives it is in power thanks to outside intervention by the UN and especially by France, the former colonial power in the country.

 The Ouattara government’s prosecution of Laurent Gbagbo will also likely be a key aspect of the reconciliation process. 

 Although many of Gbagbo’s supporters defected to the Ouattara camp in the past few weeks, the former President still has a considerable support through out the country.

 Le Roy said President Ouattara’s forces were guarding Gbagbo and his family inside an apartment at the Golf Hotel and that UN officers were also positioned outside to ensure his safety.

 The UN peacekeeping chief confirmed that Mr. Gbagbo’s wife and son Michel were physically abused when first taken into custody, but UN officials had since received assurances from the Ouattara camp that they would be treated “in a correct manner”. 

 One of Gbagbo’s minister’s, Desire Tagro , died under mysterious circumstances hours after he was taken into custody by Ouattara supporters. Le Roy said UNOCI officials transported the former interior minister to a local hospital for emergency medical treatment on a gun shot wound to the jaw, but were unable to prevent his death. 

 Meanwhile, humanitarian agencies have voiced serious concern over the plight of the population displaced by armed clashes. More than 800 000 people have fled their homes since the start of the fighting, over 120 000 of whom have crossed into neighboring Liberia.

Yesterday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) appealed for 160 million dollars to address humanitarian needs over the next nine months. OCHA says aid agencies have been able to reach affected areas in the west of the country, but security concerns were preventing greater humanitarian access to Abijan, were a large portion of the population is without water, food and electricity. 

 The UN says its troops are actively patrolling the city and that calm is slowly returning to the country’s economic capital, with ports and banks scheduled to re-open sometime next week. 

France's Re-Entry Into NATO Is No "Trojan Horse," Say Experts

By Laura Woodhead - Talk Radio News Service

A panel of foreign affairs experts argued Tuesday that France's re-entry into the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization's military command is not a "Trojan Horse" plot to undermine the power of NATO. Speaking at the Atlantic Council's discussion "Going from Oui to fait Accompli: France's Normalization with NATO" the panel discussed the key role that France will play in bringing together the European Union and the United States within NATO.

Leo Michel, a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, says the idea that France's re-involvement in NATO will allow them to undermine the organization is ridiculous.

"This is a win, win outcome. It is not cover for some a nefarious French plot to hobble NATO."

"French reintegration is a vote of confidence in the trans-Atlantic community and provides an example to the rest of the Europe of a common effort towards meeting challenges coming at us" explained Jim Townsend, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO policy.

However, the panel stressed that France's new role did not mean that the relationship between France and the United States would be "simple and easy."

" There are some in town that think that the clouds are going to open and rainbows are going to appear and all of a sudden divisions after division of French forces are going to flow into the NATO system...that is just not realistic." However, Townsend added, "The addition of French strategic thought back into NATO military command...will be a tremendous plus for the alliance."

No Apologies Necessary: Obama's Upcoming Overseas Tour

By Courtney Ann Jackson- Talk Radio News Service

While President Obama is scheduled to travel next week to Egypt, Germany and France, his administration has not found its foreign policy footing, according to analysts at the Heritage Foundation.

“This trip next week is going to be watched very closely all over Europe, all across the world,” said Nile Gardner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, “Every statement he makes will be scrutinized very carefully to see whether he is seeking to further atone for America’s past, which I think would be disastrous for the President to do so. The fact is that President Obama is increasingly being viewed as a soft touch on the world stage.”

On the President’s last visit to Europe he discussed American arrogance and Gardner believes it was a “huge strategic error in judgment” for him to “condemn his own country on foreign soil.”

On this tour, Obama is expected to give a speech on foreign policy while in Egypt but James Phillips, senior research fellow of Middle Eastern Affairs at the Heritage Foundation, believes the focus should be on a comparison between the people’s future defined by the Islamists and a future defined by freedom.

The consensus of the analysts was that the worst thing Obama could do on his visit is to succumb to the idea of incessantly apologizing for America’s past and issues like what the Bush administration dubbed the “War on Terror” and instead step up to the challenges boldly.

Gardner said he believes the President “needs to toughen his act on the international stage, project strong international leadership, and stand up to both the threat of a nuclear armed Iran as well as a nuclear armed North Korea.” He added that this is the time for strong U.S. leadership.

McCain-Palin campaign attacks Obama's tax proposals

"The reality is not that Barack Obama has a tax-cut, or even a plan to make jobs. The reality is that he has a plan that is riddled with bad incentives, full of targeted handouts, and fundamentally based on redistribution of wealth, and stands in sharp contrast to John McCain's approach." This was stated by Doug Holtz-Eakin, Senior Policy Adviser for the McCain-Palin campaign, in response to Senator Barack Obama's (D-IIll.) tax reform plan. Nancy Pfotenhauer, Senior Policy Adviser for the McCain-Palin campaign, said Obama's tax plan "punishes achievement".

The campaign advisers claim Obama's tax reforms amount to "sending checks to individuals, many of whom may not be working, and who certainly do not have a tax liability". They added that Obama's tax cuts for job creation in American businesses are "too little too late", and too small to offset the supposed damages his own policies would do. Pfotenhauer said, "if this is his prescription for our economy, at a time when we're already ailing, I cannot think of any kind of medicine that could be worse".

"Barack Obama's overall economic policy can be characterized as the Europeanization of the american economy, because it is effectively a high tax, high spending protectionist approach," Pfotenhauer said, "and it doesn't work. All you need to do is look at the economies in say Germany or France, where you have, even in our tough economic time, unemployment rates that are significantly higher, growth rates that are significantly lower, and a quality of life or living that is about a third lower than in the United States." Holtz-Eakin and Pfotenhauer were participating in a conference call on Obama's tax plan, which according to the McCain advisers, includes approximately a trillion dollars of new spending and increased tax credits for Americans that do not pay income taxes.