Low Earth Orbit

French unilateralism in action

[source, source]

U.S. officials said on Thursday they fear France’s efforts to get a better deal from Libya for victims of the 1989 bombing of a French airliner will delay a $2.7 billion settlement of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

France is threatening a UN Security Council veto of lifting sanctions on Libya, part of the deal worked out over the Lockerbie bombings. Libya will pay blood money, admit responsibility and promise to behave. In exchange, the UN imposd sanctions are lifted and Libya gets to become a semi-civilized nation. It wouldn't be perfect but it would be a step forward so naturally France is opposed. Ghaddaffi is hardly the model of an upstanding leader, but there's plenty worse out there and if he actually owns up _and behaves_ then I'm ok with the deal. There needs to be rewards for reforming states as well as punishments for rogue states. None of this is a concern to France, however. They just want some more cash:

France, however, has said that before U.N. sanctions are lifted it wants a better deal for the 170 people who died in the 1989 bombing of a French UTA airliner. Libya, which never admitted responsibility for that incident, paid about 30.5 million euros ($34.3 million) to settle the claim.

No Americans, no foul

[source, source]

Several reports of the [Saddam Hussein's] sons' deaths mentioned that some Iraqis celebrated the news in a traditional Iraqi way: firing guns into the air. What was missing in the coverage was that many Iraqis lost their lives in the celebrations. Al Mu'tamar newspaper, published by the Iraqi National Conference -- the closest of American allies -- quoted medical and security sources in Baghdad citing that 31 civilians were killed and 76 injured as a result of the revelry gunfire. No U.S. media reported such news.

Creates an interesting perspective on how terrible the deaths from US military actions are. While it would be better if we didn't kill people accidentally, the fact that these deaths went unreported while smaller numbers are big news when Americans are involved shows just how concerned Big Media really is about Iraqi casualties.

Arab governments declare themselves illegitimate

[source]

Arab League members will not recognize Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council and instead will wait until post-Saddam Hussein Iraq is led by an elected government, league Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Tuesday.

I'm a bit behind on this, but the hyprocrisy is so monumental that I have to make a note of it. The AJC(Atlanta Journal-Constitution) makes the wry comment

Few other league members can claim to be led by democratically elected governments. The Arab League's 22 members include the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which is not a state, and Somalia, which has no internationally recognized government.

Yeah, Somalia doesn't even *have* a government but it's unwilling to recognize one in Iraq. I'd say that the Arab League should go all out and evict all members without an elected government but then there'd be no one left to turn off the light.