Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

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Waterloo, Too

Friday March 14, 2003

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On June 18, 1815 Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, defeated Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo, which is a town about 10 miles south of Brussels.

This event, according to the BBC's short history, "drew to a close 23 years of war beginning with the French Revolutionary wars in 1792 and continuing with the Napoleonic Wars from 1803."

Napoleon, who had been able to escape from Elba, 'ere he had been held captive, was thrown back into the clink on the island of St. Helena where he died.

In one of those odd coincidences of history, exactly 187 years, three months, and 5 five days later - TO THE DAY - the Brits and the French more-or-less declared war on one another again.

According to Warren Hoge's reporting in the New York Times, After a meeting at 10 Downing Street, Iain Duncan Smith, leader of the Conservative opposition who is supporting Blair's Iraq policy said, "the French have become completely intransigent and literally threatened to veto anything" that comes before the Security Council.

A "spokesman" for the British government "accused the French of 'poisoning' the diplomatic process.

Jack Straw, the British Foreign Secretary, "said he found it 'extraordinary' that France had closed off all circumstances under which it might support a new United Nations measure."

That is British diplomatic-speak for "The frogs are a royal pain in the derri�re."

According to the BBC's history, Napoleon's "mistakes in communication, leadership and judgment led, ultimately, to French defeat" at Waterloo. A French error which is being repeated even today.

As a sidebar, aside from Napoleon who had named himself First Consul for Life and Emperor of France, one of the major actors in the Waterloo drama was Gebhard Leberecht von Bl�cher, the commander of the Prussian army. We assume his wife was named Frau Bl�cher.

Another player was a French guy named "Marshall Grouchy" who commanded about 30,000 French troops arrayed against Bl�cher's Prussian forces.

If you look in the dictionary under the word "redundancy" you will see it is defined as "A Frenchman named Grouchy."

In other Iraq developments, according to the Financial Times, "a delegation, made up of the foreign ministers of Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Syria and Lebanon, and the secretary general of the 22-nation Arab League" which was about to leave on a mission which would take them to Baghdad had their trip called off when Syria and Lebanon objected fearing the delegation would ask Saddam to accept exile.

This, in the face of a front page story in the "Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper earlier this week, claiming that permanent members of the UN Security Council, including some opposed to war, wanted the Arabs to step up the pressure on the Iraqi leader to give up power."

The Saudi's control their newspapers pretty closely so putting the notion of deposing Saddam on the front page is seen as a strong signal that the Saudis have now come around to the position of the rest of the Persian Gulf States that the only way to avoid a war is for Saddam to accept exile.

In a remarkable appearance in the House of Commons the other day, Prime Minister Tony Blair, who's Labor Party has a significant number of anti-war members said:

Of course the US could go alone and, of course, this country should not take military action unless it is in our interests to do so," he said.
"It is the British national interest that must be upheld at all times.
"But the reason why I believe it is important that we hold firm to the course we have set out is because what is at stake here isn't whether the US goes alone or not.
"It is whether the international community is prepared to back up the clear instruction it gave to Saddam Hussein with the necessary action.
"That is why I am determined we hold firm to the course we have set out."

Tony Blair is quite a guy.

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