From the Los Angeles Times:

Jacques Chirac, former French president, dies at 86

By SEBASTIAN ROTELLA
SEP. 26, 2019 4:19 AM

… “One could say the French national personality is composed of two archetypes, the Cartesian and the Latin,” Pierre Giacometti, director of the Ipsos polling firm, said in an interview in 2002. “The Cartesian is sober, logical, intellectual. The Latin is the roguish charmer, the fast-talker. The French see Chirac as the Latin, and they have a tendency to forgive him his weaknesses.” …

Chirac’s defining moment on the international stage came when he clashed with President George W. Bush over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

As the West’s diplomatic confrontation with Saddam Hussein intensified in 2002, many observers and U.S. officials thought France, a prickly but generally dependable U.S. ally, would ultimately support a war or refrain from interference.

But Chirac dug in his heels. France demanded that U.N. inspectors be given more time to investigate Iraq’s arsenal, which in the French view did not pose an urgent threat. Chirac joined forces with Germany and Russia to spearhead opposition to Bush’s request that the U.N. approve military intervention.

In a carefully staged television interview on March 10, 2003, Chirac announced that France would take the unprecedented step of using its veto power to block the U.S. proposal at the U.N. Security Council.

“France will vote no because she considers this evening that there’s no reason to go to war,” Chirac said. “War is always the worst of solutions. France is not an anti-American country — it is absurd to imagine that. We have two centuries of history in common, we share the same values. We have always stuck together in difficult moments So there is no risk that the United States and France, that the American people and French people, will argue or get angry with each other.”

The invasion went forward without a Security Council vote or a French veto. And U.S.-French relations hit a nadir. Although cooperation on vital issues such as anti-terrorism enforcement continued, the palpable tension between Bush and Chirac never dissipated.

Chirac’s motives were partly sincere, U.S. and French diplomats agreed. He and his inner circle were convinced that toppling Hussein would worsen Islamic terrorism, not extinguish it. As a military veteran of France’s colonial war in Algeria, Chirac predicted that U.S.-led occupiers would find themselves in a bloody quagmire reminiscent of the French struggle that ended in Algerian independence.

Chirac explained to Bush, based on his experiences as a French Army officer during the Algerian War, just how awful Bush’s Iraq War was going to be.

Bush didn’t listen.

The decision also resulted from political calculations, however. At home, Chirac’s anti-war stance shielded him against backlash from a restive Muslim population, the largest in Europe. His approval ratings hit a record-high 80% with a public that was predominantly anti-war and increasingly anti-American.