aterial support to our cause from France herself, American liberty and independence, might have been secured.

What is indisputable was that French support was critical and France came through.

In 1918 when General Pershing arrived in France he acknowledged part of that debt by declaring, "Lafayette, nous sommes ici." Today I have family who are grateful to the United States for ousting the Nazis from France.

France, a kingdom then, invested in a future of democratic-republican liberty in 1778 and it has paid dividends for you.

I am asking France to invest in America again.

What I am asking France to do is what you are already inclined to do.

Exercise your veto at the UN Security Council to deny a war resolution against Iraq.

What I ask France to do for the United States is prevent an imperial war. Put a different way: save America from homegrown imperialists whose fevered nightmare vision threatens this country's founding ideal: a nation conceived in liberty.

Our constitution has been perverted, usurped and ignored on the question of war. For a generation the rationale of centralizing foreign policy in the Presidency was a "cold war" against a military and diplomatic foe. That threat passed over a decade ago.

That cold war apparatus having lost its justifying mission now searches for a war to justify a mission.

Most Americans oppose going to war without UN and allied support. This war would plunge the Middle East into wider war and blowback terrorism into Europe, the Americas and wider.

It is contrary to France's interest to see the American empire stagger into the wider disaster of war that will unleash forces that no regime can either contain or foresee.

It is in the interest of France and Europe for America to move to a republican [lower-case "R"] foreign policy and away from empire.

A veto by France against an Iraq war resolution would be an act of statesmanship that future generations would mark as a turning point toward civilization and retreat from the long march into barbarism that began with the Great War.

Yes, you would feel the ire of the present regime. Already the honor of France is being smeared here. Smile at such: there are institutional strengths within France that will sustain you in the gale of abuse. Yes they will "Cry havoc! And let loose the poodles of war." You might reply, "Chacun a son betise."

Remember that when one is delirious, one takes no offense to the ravings of the ill. There is no worse delirium than empire. France has walked that path and paid its price. In the name of humanity, sympathy and blood spilt as allies: I ask France to do what you are already inclined to do.

French blood was shed to help free America over two hundred years ago. Surely France is strong enough to endure the ravings that would come.

Aidez-nous, Lafayette.

------------------------------------------------------------------

To contact the French legation to the UN send your emails to: france-presse@un.int.

Russia and China are also permanent members of the UN Security Council and can veto resolutions. However their reasons to oppose American imperial actions wouldn't come from sympathy. Their email addresses are:

For the Russian Federation: rf.mission@atnet.at

For the Peoples Republic of China: chnun@undp.org

February 11, 2003

Alan Turin lives and writes in Hollywood, Florida.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------