Jacques Chirac will enter French history as the one who dared oppose the American decision to send French troops in the war against Iraq. He is the president who spared his country military casualties in a war he knew would cost his country dearly. May the great Palestinian thinker and writer Edward Said rest in peace; a month before his death, he bet that France would not use its veto, and would enter the war with America's allies and the British in Iraq. In a phone call from Al-Hayat's New York office, Said stated that it would be impossible for France to stand against the US. Unfortunately, Said did not live long enough to see Chirac say no to a war he knew would be costly for his country and the region. Chirac was the friend of the late Rafik al-Hariri, who liberated his country from the Syrian army, which had remained there for 30 years. Chirac was the president who, after long and profound thought, decided to send 2,000 French soldiers to join UNIFIL, to protect South Lebanon after the barbaric war waged by Israel against it. He was the one who organized the Paris 1, 2 and 3 conferences, to aid Lebanon. Dr. Chirac, as Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called him, always defended the Palestinian cause. Chirac is the president who stopped in the Old City of Jerusalem, against the Israeli police, who were trying to prevent him from moving around in the city's western neighborhood. He refused to have the Israeli mayor accompany him, because France considered Jerusalem the capital of the Palestinian state as well. Chirac was the French president who was quickest to receive the late Arafat, at one of the finest hospitals in France, as well as the quickest to bid him farewell, when the entire western world was shunning him. Chirac walked in the streets of Algiers, hand in hand with the Algerian president, Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika, and encouraged him to go to the Casbah for the first time since a devastating earthquake. The Algerian president waited for a while before finally doing so, with the great president of France. This is the history of that great man, whom the French judiciary wanted to punish in order to show that it is independent. It sentenced him to two years in prison, suspended because of his age, in a 20-year-old case, dealing with phantom jobs at the municipality of Paris when Chirac was mayor there in 1995. Also paying a high price is the former foreign minister, Alain Juppe. The strange judge wanted to oppose the Public Prosecution, which held that Chirac should have been released, and not brought to trial, as a president who worked for France's dignity and glory on the international scene. Some saw the verdict as a campaign against Gaullism, but it is not this – it is merely a verdict from a judge who wanted to demonstrate his independence from the Public Prosecution, and apply the law in a 20-year-old case. This verdict is sad because of the history of this great man, who has become frail with old age. However, despite the verdict issued against him, he remains the favorite politician of the French. But the French judge is unconcerned with opinion polls. Chirac stood accused first of all in terms of his reputation, and especially his fame, and the judge was able to pass judgment against the most popular person in France, even if his health did not let him defend himself. Chirac was represented by lawyers at the court's sessions. But history books will be fair to this president, who did many things for his country, with devotion and loyalty, whatever this judge has said.
