Sour Grapes Summit

Kommersant, the Moscow daily, called it the "Congress of Losers." British officials preferred the "Sour Grapes Summit." When the leaders of France, Germany and Russia met in St. Petersburg last weekend, they were still shell-shocked by the quick coalition victory they had doubted was possible, and by TV images of Iraqis rejoicing in a liberation they had staunchly opposed. But anyone expecting them to use the summit to build bridges to Washington or London came away disappointed — and a little confused.

The leaders stood by their opposition to the invasion of Iraq without U.N. approval, and argued that it could drag the world into more war. Spying a Che Guevara T shirt in the crowd of journalists, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that "exporting capitalist and democratic revolution" could lead to "an endless series of military conflicts." French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder backed U.N. control of the whole economic, social and political reconstruction of Iraq — even though U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (who avoided the summit) has been trying to sidestep that huge task.

Give Chirac credit for consistency. For months diplomats, politicians and business leaders have been waiting for him to back down, but he refuses. In fact, he seems more smitten than ever with his self-appointed role as leader of a new, more assertive Europe standing in opposition to U.S. power — and never mind the consequences (or the fact that half of Europe isn't with him)."It's a multipolar world that little by little is organizing itself," Chirac claimed at the summit. Really? Berlin has privately been trying to mend fences with the U.S. and U.K., and Schröder declined to take part in Chirac's criticism. Putin has big disagreements with Europe — like a massive Soviet-era debt that Germany hasn't canceled. And more than a few of Chirac's countrymen are wondering how he's going to get out of this mess. Even the vice president of Chirac's party faction in the National Assembly, Claude Goasguen, wants him to change course: "French diplomacy should tone down the violence of its remarks toward the Americans, and think again about a number of quarrelsome statements made without rhyme or reason."

But Chirac hasn't budged. Says François Heisbourg of the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, "I've seen no sign of him climbing down from his tree. It's getting weirder and weirder."