Posted on 03/13/2008 5:32:04 PM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
PARIS: Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister of France and a longtime humanitarian, diplomatic and political activist on the international scene, says that whoever succeeds President George W. Bush may restore something of the United States' battered image and standing overseas, but that "the magic is over."
In a wide-ranging conversation with Roger Cohen of the International Herald Tribune at the launch of a Forum for New Diplomacy in Paris, Kouchner on Tuesday also held out the hope of talking with Hamas, the Palestinian faction that rules the Gaza Strip but has been ostracized by the West and by its Palestinian rival, Fatah, because it opposes peace talks with Israel and denies that Israel has a right to exist.
Asked whether the United States could repair the damage it has suffered to its reputation during the Bush presidency and especially since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Kouchner replied, "It will never be as it was before."
"I think the magic is over," he continued, in what amounted to a sober assessment from one of the strongest supporters in France of the United States.
U.S. military supremacy endures, Kouchner noted, and the new president "will decide what to do - there are many means to re-establish the image." But even that, he predicted, "will take time."....."
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Or the muzzies.
Guess again mon ami.
Keep Dreaming, Frog.
We won’t always have a President who is asleep at the wheel on domestic policy (wait, wasn’t that what doomed Bush 41?? Maybe he really IS just like his dad like the loons were telling us?)
we are so over.
yeah, we just suck
You mean back when the Frogs used to do all of those nice things for US? Or .... er, uh.... Are the Frogs going to withold baugettes and bad wine? C'mon man, what am I going to miss when a Frog witholds his favors?
Franco-American relations are kaput.
I guess I'd better stock up on Spaghetti-O's before supplies run dry.
And probably will for the next several hundred years or so … drat, the curse of it all. ;-)
It is a sad day when the French pity us. Oh wait it was a cheap shot, never mind....
Frenchman: "Non!"
American: "You're welcome!
Talk about projecting!
“Or the muzzies.”
The US will stay home when the “muzzies’ take over France simply because the US is convinced that the “muzzies” follow the ROP. Besides, the US will have enough problems with the “muzzies” right here at home.
some people just do not die soon enough for the good of the world.
Yeah, no more Jerry Lewis movies. Too bad, Froggie.
“Jay Nay Say Paw” ‘bout dat. I disagree with what the minister has to say, but I will defend to the death his right to can-can!
HARD DEBATES AT NATO ON GEORGIAN MEMBERSHIP ACTION PLAN - March 11, 2008 - Several West European governments cold-shouldered Georgia’s and Ukraine’s applications for NATO Membership Action Plans (MAPs) during the meeting of NATO countries’ ministers of foreign affairs on March 6 in Brussels.
At the Brussels meeting, French Minister of Foreign Affairs Bernard Kouchner urged the NATO Council to “take into account Russia’s sensitivity and the important role it plays.” Moreover, he argued, relations with Russia are already strained over Kosova and the planned U.S. missile shield, and should not be subjected to further strain over MAPs. Kouchner had personally been committed to Kosova’s independence and pressed for its secession from Serbia despite Russia’s objections. With France scheduled to take over the European Union’s presidency on July 1, Kouchner claims that his government and the EU as a whole need an unperturbed relationship with Russia in order to agree on a cooperation agenda, specifically mentioning energy ties. “We think that EU-Russia relations are absolutely important. And France is not the only country wanting to maintain a relationship with Russia as a great nation”
And these are the people our USAF is buying their new tanker from!?
Hey, it’s the French, losers since WWI.
F_ck the French
Lol, A serious point on a Joke thread, Kouchner is a duplicitous worm. He wants good relations with Russia but supports Kosova’s independence over Russia’s Opposition. I can’t believe the Russians take a word he says seriously, not that they need to.
Who the hell cares what some bung-hole Frenchman says?
The US has a "battered image" only among socialist foreign snots like him.
What a tower of strength!
Sounds good to me. The “magic” never seemed to do us any good, just got us blamed for everything. Magicless sounds good to me.
In the immortal words of Rhett Butler, "FRANKLY MY DEAR.....I DON"T GIVE A DAMN!"
What magic?
It was blood, sweat and toil.
Oh, wait....
I guess I missed that “US is magic” coverage in Euromedia and in Europolitics.
“going to war without the french is like going hunting without your accordion” - norman schwartzkopf
There never was any “magic”. There was nothing to lose.
They’ve been slagging off the US for fifty years at least. The most respected French thinker of the twentieth century was Jean-Paul Sartre, still revered, and he despised the US with great verve.
Friends of mine living in France in the 1980’s-90’s reported a general antipathy vs the US. On of them hung a US flag at her window just to piss off her neighbors.
Maybe they won’t sell the Air Force the tankers after all...
In fairness, we would not have won the Revolutionary War without them. But that's how far back you have to go.
Drunken old crabby geezer Jack Cafferty was kissing this frog’s flippers on CNN today. Naturally, Jack agreed with pierre 100% about Amerikkka being a horrible country, and it’s all Bush’s fault.
Oh, I don’t know,...when the homosexual deviant lobby is able to roughshod their way over EVERY institution we held holy, and our politicians let them do it,..then maybe Frog Boy has a point.
Actually, they’ve been losers since Waterloo in 1815.
-ccm
From “La Garde recule” forward France was never as great. They never recovered their national Mojo.
The magic was over for me when I ate my first meal in a Paris resturant.
They couldn’t even hold Mexico, although what they wanted with it in the first place has always mystified me.
We have Marines!
And Army!
And Navy!
And Xbox and YouTube and kids that cheat death on their skateboards just for the fun of it.
Eat your croissant-shaped heart out!
So according to this "longtime humanitarian, diplomatic and political activist" even Hillary and Obama are too conservative.
Maybe we could did up Marx or Stalin for him.
/S
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sXLkKflnis
You have to believe we are magic :)
Gee, you mean the magic wasn’t over when they villified Ronald Reagan back in the Eighties?
Man, I sure did think it was over then. I must have missed the intervening years of magic.
Just watch the turnaround in the Eurosocialists' perception of the U.S. if Barack Hussein Obama, the Magic Negro, gets elected.
But I agree with you. A "magicless" U.S. sounds good to me. Lets stop throwing around billions in foreign aide. Let's bring all our troops home. The the Euroweenies figure out what to do then.
You forgot Agincourt in 1415 and Crécy a hundred years before that. Actually, you could go all the way back to the Roman conquest of Gaul that was finished in 51 BC!
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