Iraq: The war in UN

‘‘We are willing to try to give peace a chance,’’ Villepin said, implying that the United States is all too ready to go to war. ‘‘There are some Council members who don’t want to face up to (their) obligations,’’ Powell replied, with France in mind. Underneath the sharp exchange was a deeper division that many foreign policy scholars fear will mark the coming decade and limit the ability of any President of the United States to work his will: the growing tendency of Europeans to see their interests as conflicting with America’s.

‘‘It’s a continuing fact, and it’s as bad as can be: Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus,’’ said Robert Kagan, a conservative foreign policy analyst who first coined that phrase in an influential essay last year.

He argues that Americans are willing to use military power to solve problems around the world because they have so much of it — and that Europeans are reluctant to use military power because they have so little. ‘‘The United States has generally been comfortable with the concept of diplomacy backed by force,’’ he said. ‘‘But it appears to be an increasingly alien concept in Europe. The French have never suggested a deadline on Iraq. There appears to be no moment at which they are willing to use force.’’ Moreover, scholars say, French President Jacques Chirac sees an opportunity to play a power role by restraining the mighty US specially in the Security Council, where France has a veto. In this view, France is opposing the US on Iraq not merely because it wants to preserve commercial contracts in Baghdad, as many Americans believe, but because it has concerns about US policies—and also sees a chance to increase its influence within Europe and around the world. Not every European country is following France’s lead. Chirac has won the support of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin for his opposition to war.

Philip H. Gordon, director of the Center on the US and France at Washington’s Brookings Institution, agreed. ‘‘The French believe that most of the world thinks it is a very bad idea to use force against Iraq unless you really have to, and the polls suggest that they are right,’’ he said.

‘‘The French view of US power is that you can be a leader, but that doesn’t mean you get to decide for the rest of the world,’’ he added.

In public, Powell and other US officials have been polite about France’s role on Iraq. But in private, US officials have been seething about Chirac, dismissing his position as ‘‘cynical’’ and worse. (LATWP)