THE FRENCH RETREAT

From today’s Le Monde, thanks to my intrepid French correspondent:

“The difficulty for French policy makers is to deliver, in the presence of George Bush, an intelligible message without seeming to go back on everything.- France is now ready to vote at the UN in favor of the American Iraq resolution.- ‘It’s not the role that we would have hoped for the UN, but there has been real progress in the American text, and maybe there can be even more progress,’ said the Elysee Palace.- This vote, which could happen Thursday morning, would liberate the Evian summit from a weighty subject full of conflict. . . . And then, you have to look at the facts:- ‘There is no alternative,’ they say in Paris.- A majority of the Security Council is in favor of the American text.- Germany and Russia hope to avoid relaunching another battle at the UN and France, said one diplomat, ‘does not have an interest, for the future, of disassociating itself from them because it is not beyond the realm of possibility that the Americans could again look to implement their policies by force of arms.- The advantages and inconveniences of an abstention [at the UN] should be weighed against all that.”

Reculer pour mieux sauter. (Translation: we still need to watch our backs.)