Evidently the infantile egomaniacs running things in Washington somehow thought they could threaten other countries (read: France and Germany) with economic retaliation, and not feel any backlash. As if other inductrialized nations were falling over themselves to do business with American companies, or that American companies are the only ones available.
Take the example of Airbus and Pratt & Whitney. Pratt & Whitney had the lowest bid to supply Airbus with engines for military aircraft. Instead Airbus went with a European consortium. Why? Because Colin Powell threatened France with economic war.
"Jean-Francois Boittin, commercial counselor at the French embassy in Washington, says the rift over Iraq was not decisive for Airbus but might have contributed to the decision.
''It's part of the picture. It's part of reality. You can't say on one side, 'Let's punish France,' and hope that American companies that compete on contracts of that sort are going to be looked at very favorably'' in France." -- Jean-Francois Boittin, commercial counselor at the French embassy in Washington.
And it gets worse.
The Bush Administration is filing suit at the WTO to force the EU to allow imports of genetically odified foods, despite the wishes of the European electorate. Mostly because it thinks US companies should be allowed to force unlabelled ranken-food on people who don't want it. I don't want to eat that garbage myself.
This from the same people who had a hissy, when Canadian companioes were able to sue the US under NAFTA for saying we had certain environmental restrictions.
This is about national sovereignty. The right to live under laws of our own choosing is fundamental, and being the sole Superpower doesn't give us the right to tell people what to eat, any more than they can tell us not to insist on fuel additives.
At this rate, the United States willbe forcibly returned to isolationist past. But then, maybe that's what the Bushes want.
Posted by Chris at May 13, 2003 09:17 AM