CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, April 28, 2003

The Patriot’s Shopping Guide

As a public service, this week’s column is designed to help those readers who might like to spend their hard-earned dollars on products produced by those nations who joined in the coalition to topple the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein and to liberate the people of Iraq.

Forty-six countries made public commitments to support Operation Iraqi Freedom. Plus, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and even Turkey gave various degrees of overt and covert support.

A mere listing of the 46 public members of the Coalition would make for some pretty dry reading. So, to make the list more interesting, they are listed in conjunction with a product or products for which they are known. At the end of this column, we’ll follow the money trail leading to some folks who ended up on the wrong side of history and, hopefully, will end up on the wrong side of some sets of steel bars.

Wine: Our wine-producing friends are: Australia Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain and, of course, wines from American vineyards. Italy, Portugal and Spain were especially supportive and deserve special consideration.

Beer: Our beer producing friends are: Australia, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, Panama, the Philippines, South Korea and, of course, the United Kingdom. Australia, Denmark and the UK deserve extra consideration. Vodka: Polish and American brands should be favored.

Aircraft: Let’s urge U.S. air carriers to buy aircraft from Boeing, McDonald-Douglas and other U.S. manufacturers and British Aerospace.

Coffee: Our coffee-producing friends are: Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua.

Other products. If you need products from these countries, they stood with us as well:Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Iceland, Kuwait, Lithuania, Macedonia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Palau, Rwanda, Singapore, Slovakia, Solomon Islands, Uganda and Uzbekistan.

As promised, here are some countries that wouldn’t lift a finger to help us: Belgium, Canada, Chile, Greece, Red China, France, Germany, Mexico, Turkey and Russia. The products from Canada, Red China and Mexico are too numerous to list, so just check labels before buying.

Other than vodka and criminals, the Russians really don’t export much of anything. Polish vodka is better anyway. We no longer buy French, German or Chilean wine, and no more Belgian or German beer.

Here’s a partial list of French-owned products and services to avoid: Airbus Aircraft, Accor Travel Services, Bic pens lighters and razors, Chanel perfume, cheeses from France, Christian Dior, Christian Lacroix leather goods, Daniel Cremieux men’s clothing, Drakkar Noir cologne, Evian water, Fina and Total gasoline, French Champagne, Gray Goose Vodka, Givenchy perfume, Loreal make-up; Renault, Peugeot and Nissan automobiles, Patrick Shoes, Paul Sabastian perfumes, Pernod Ricard, Seagrams Spirits, Perrier water, Socata Aircraft, Societe General, Sitram cookware, Sparkletts water, Vivendi-Seagram autovisual products, Rossignol and Solomon skis, bindings and boots, Yoplait Yogurt and Yves Rocker cosmetics.

From Germany, let’s avoid: Adidas shoes, Audi automobiles, AGFA film products Baekeker’s Travel Guides, Bertelsman-Random House Books, Deutsche Bank, Henckels Knives, Beck’s Bier, Birkenstock shoes, BMW, Continental Tires, H&K firearms, Jacob’s Coffee, Linser Filtration products, Mannesman Rexroth/Bosch products, Mercedes, Mil-Tec Sturm outdoor clothing, St. Pauli Girl and Wahrsteiner Bier, Lufthansa, Miele coffee filters, Porsche, Siemens products, Sigarms, T-Mobile phones, Volkswagens, Walther Firearms and Wusthof Knives.

Speaking of money, experienced detectives say the way to find the villains is to follow the money trail. Each day, our troops uncover some amazing documentary evidence. Look for a member of the British Parliament to be jailed. He led the opposition to Tony Blair’s Iraqi liberation policy. Turns out Saddam paid him millions of English Pounds to do so. One of Saddam’s wealthy supporters has been paying former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter’s anti-war speaking-tour expenses.

UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has been using the Oil for Food program as his and the UN’s private cash cow. The UN was Saddam’s biggest business partner. No wonder Bush and Blair met such obstructionism from Kofi Annan and Hans Blix. Stay tuned.

William Hamilton, a nationally syndicated columnist and featured commentator for USA Today. is the co-author of The Grand Conspiracy and The Panama Conspiracy – novels about terrorist attacks on Colorado’s water supply and on the Panama Canal, respectively.

©2003. William Hamilton

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com