As a one-time U.N. administrator and ex-health minister, Bernard Kouchner played crucial roles in international humanitarian efforts for more than 30 years. Frustrated with the strict codes of neutrality and reliance on the permission of the host governments to give assistance, he co-founded the Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) also known as Doctors without Borders which in 1999 received the Nobel peace price for its charitable work.
One would think that a person with such reputable humanitarian background would be strongly opposed to sanctions and illegal wars of aggression. But contrary to popular French and world opinion, Mr. Kouchner did in fact fully approve of the U.S. administrations plan to force regime change in Iraq.
Again one may argue that people do occasionally make poor judgment calls and that he shouldn’t be singled out for having not envisioned the fiasco and the resulting tragic human catastrophe that has befallen the people of Iraq; except that four years later, as newly appointed Foreign Minister of France, he is writing the same flawed prescription for Iraq’s eastern neighbor Iran [1]. A country with three times the size and four times the population which has so far managed to escape the chaos and massive human suffering on both sides of its borders as a direct result of foreign interventions.
Time has come for the rest of the world to see through this Western façade and their opportunist hypocrites like Mr. Kouchner. We must drown their genocide inciting megaphones and repeatedly let it be known that Iran is in breach of no international conventions or agreements. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly confirmed that all fissile material have been accounted for and none diverted to any prohibited activities and on August 30th it issued a statement to the board of governors praising Iran for its cooperation [2] with that agency.
In closing remarks to the board [3], IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said: “We are not swayed by subjective political considerations and we will not thus be swayed…We are part of the United Nations system and our primary responsibility is to find peaceful solutions… At the end of the day we need to move in a much more positive direction than that of confrontation”. The latter being a direct rebut of his critics in Washington and their new found partners in Mr. Kouchner and Mr. Sarkozy who are working hard on behalf of France to restore the glorious old name of “French Fries”.
[1] http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070916/wl_nm/iran_fra…
