Levitte details French war position

Unexpectedly falling in time with the American overthrow of Baghdad, the French ambassador Jean David Levitte explained his country's opposition to the war with Iraq Wednesday.

The 2003 Foreign Affairs Symposium (FAS) organizers were left to scramble for extra chairs as 400 people packed into the Glass Pavilion to hear Levitte discuss France's opposition to the war and its interest in helping to rebuild Iraq.

"We were expecting a great turnout, but this was fantastic," said FAS Film Chairperson Mark Belinsky. "It was good to see such an engaged audience, especially because our campus has a reputation of being so apathetic."

Levitte spoke on France's diplomatic policy for 30 minutes, and then a long line of people formed at the microphone to begin the question forum. He discussed France's general opposition to force and stressed the importance of maintaining the tradition of friendship and alliance between his country and the United States.

"We [France] believe that the war set a very dangerous precedent, and my hope is that Iraq will remain an exception," Levitte said.

The United States must respect that France considers the Middle East as much "its backyard" as the U.S. does Mexico, he said. "We [the European Union] are proud of our sovereignty."

At the same time, Levitte repeatedly stressed that France and the U.S. will remain allies

"Within weeks, we'll find a way to put our relations back on track because we are good friends," he said and added that France feels strongly that the United Nations should assist the U.S. and Britain in rebuilding Iraq. France will meet with Germany and Russia on Friday in St. Petersburg to discuss their outlook for post-war Iraq.

Six people remained standing in line at the microphone even after Levitte addressed the first 10 questions in-depth and then closed the forum.

Erica Weiss, co-chairperson of the FAS programming committee, said that the symposium planners try to keep the question session to 30 minutes.

"We understand that people want to ask questions, but we feel it's not bad to cut them short here [in the lecture hall] because the speaker is available afterwards at the reception."

Although Levitte's audience was highly receptive, many said they were left dissatisfied with Levitte's optimism and strong focus on the France-United States friendship in the future.

"He [Levitte] didn't really acknowledge why French policy has changed," said senior Tack Richardson. "French rhetoric against the war was really strong, and that rhetoric has softened now."

Senior Marty Kolewe agreed, saying that in light of France's new interest in cooperating with the United States, he wanted to hear "an apology" for their prior opposition to American policy.

Kolewe, who was next in line to ask a question when Levitte closed the forum, said that the ambassador was too eager to brush aside the past and had hoped to ask why France is making such a stark turnabout in their policy regarding Iraq.

Freshman international relations major Stephanie Hausner and sophomore political science major Adena Laufer also noticed that Levitte's talk was "very diplomatic."

"He [Levitte] answered lots of questions in a similar manor," Hausner said.

She said that she felt that much of the audience was not strongly pro-war, which might have made them less likely to really grill Levitte on France's previous anti-war stance.

FAS co-chair Weiss said that Levitte could only be expected to represent his role as a diplomat.

"It is the future that is important today," he said.

Formerly France's permanent representative to the United Nations, Levitte had initially planned to address the need for international involvement in the politically-unstable Great Lakes Region of Africa. Given the current events, he changed his talk to address the future of Iraq.

In the question and answer session that followed, Levitte elaborated that France equally discourages of the use of force elsewhere, even though it believes that "North Korea is a more imminent threat to the world than was Iraq."

Levitte's talk remained relevant to the FAS theme for this season, which is "Psyche of the State: The Commonality of Discontent."

Currently, the Symposium is also hosting a photography exhibit in Levering Hall of works by renowned photojournalist Steve McCurry.

McCurry, who is known for his National Geographic photograph of the "Afghan Girl," will be the next FAS speaker and will speak Tuesday, April 15 at 8 p.m. in Shriver Hall. The photography exhibit will be on display through May.

All FAS events are open to the public.