By: Paige Rohe

Atlanta, GA - In a speech Wednesday to the Atlanta Council on International
Relations, French Ambassador to the United States, Jean-David Levitte stressed
that recent tensions between the U.S. and France reflect differing approaches
to the War on Terror and should not be misinterpreted as French opposition to
the United States.  

Ambassador Levitte argued that the most basic issue with
which the US and France do not see eye to eye is of  "sovereignty."

Mr. Levitte explained that the United States looks to how it might protect
itself from further attacks like that of September 11th, 2001 from an internal
perspective, relying primarily on its own resources and political allegiances.
France and the rest of Europe, however, due to their already 'common destiny'
as members of the European Union choose instead to pursue more global,
institutional methods to address the threat of terrorism.

Ambassador Levitte emphasized France's ability to sympathize with America's
concerns regarding terrorism. For several decades prior to the terrorist
attacks on the World Trade Center, France and much of Europe had already been
engaged in what Ambassador Levitte termed a "low-level" war against acts of
terror committed by Islamic extremist groups.  

Mr. Levitte stressed that the question is not whether France supports the United States's war on terror, but rather, how France and other European countries are to understand the US's position on where the battle-lines should be drawn.

According to Mr. Levitte, although France refused to assist the United States
in its military engagement with Iraq, it did so solely because the United
States had not received approval from the United Nations Security Council. Mr.
Levitte argues that the French people are glad that Saddam Hussein and his
brutal regime have been removed from power. However, France also questions how
and when President Bush's doctrine of preemptive military action will be used
in future scenarios, particularly with respect to the dictatorship of North
Korea.

Additionally, Mr. Levitte rebuked the recent accusations by American media that
France had ulterior motives to its reticence to engage militarily with Iraq.

Feeling the majority of American anti-French sentiment was caused by similar
media charges, Ambassador Levitte urged Americans and French alike to 'mend
fences.'  

According to Atlanta's Consul-General Herve Goyens of Belgium, however,
American anti-France sentiments are not solely directed at the French. Belgium
and the rest of the European countries have often been wrongly viewed as
holding a single opinion about the war on Iraq. Mr. Goyens stated that, in
reality, much of Europe was divided in its support of President Bush's War on
Iraq.

Both Goyen and Levitte agree that despite their differences, Europe and the
United States cannot and should not allow their sometimes opposing views on
Iraq and the best way to fight future threatening regimes interfere with what
is ultimately an inextricably bound economic, social, and political
relationship. As Consul-General Goyens suggested: "This was a war against the
way to fight terrorism," and not an attack on the values and beliefs in freedom
and democracy that the United States and Europe, in fact share.