America Has No More Use for France as an Ally

The Salt Lake Tribune ^ | 2/23/2003 | D. EDWARD KNOWLES

[Utah Girl]

We are witnessing the last days not just of Saddam Hussein, but also of French pretensions to be a world power, and perhaps of the United Nations. The fate of Iraq's Saddam Hussein was sealed by Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation to the U.N. Security Council.

France's fate, and that of the United Nations, was sealed by France's continuing attempts to frustrate U.S. policy.

France is no longer an ally, and should no longer be treated as such, said Richard Perle, who, as chairman of the Defense Policy Board, is more than a private citizen, but less than a government official.

This is not bad news, because France as an "ally" is more harmful to the interests of the United States than France as an enemy.

The United States has not been seeking French support for military action against Saddam because of any material help the French could provide. Going to war without France is, in the words of former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Jed Babbin, like going deer hunting without an accordion.

The French have no objection to unilateral military interventions. They are engaged in one now in the Ivory Coast, where they are getting badly kicked. This is a typical result.

The French haven't had a battlefield success since the time of Napoleon. The Germans whipped them in the Franco-Prussian War, and again in World Wars I and II. The Vietnamese kicked them out of Indochina, and the Algerians kicked them out of North Africa.

The only value the French could have in a "Coalition of the Willing" would be to teach the Iraqis how to surrender. But -- on the evidence of the first Persian Gulf war -- the Iraqis already have this down pat.

Thanks to our generosity and foolishness, France has been able to recover at the peace table what it lost on the battlefield. Though France contributed almost nothing to the Allied victory in World War II, it was given a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council alongside the nations that actually did the fighting.

It is France's permanent membership on the Security Council, with the veto that comes with it, that feeds France's delusions of grandeur. If it weren't for its ability to posture on the U.N. stage, hardly anyone besides the editors of The New York Times would care what the French think about anything.

The French consider themselves sophisticated in the ways of the world, so it's been fun to watch how they've been outmaneuvered by the "cowboy" in the White House.

France and Germany would like to build the European Union into a superstate that would serve as a counterweight to the United States. By claiming to speak for Europe in opposing military action against Iraq, they hoped to isolate us.

But EU expansion has doomed their ambition. The smaller countries resent the efforts of France and Germany to dominate them, and the former communist countries are grateful to the United States for rescuing them. The rulers of 19 European countries have expressed support for the United States. It is the "Axis of Weasels" that now is isolated.

France can veto a resolution authorizing force, but that will mean the effective end of the United Nations. If the United Nations refuses to authorize action to enforce its resolutions, it will fade into the shadows, and take with it France's role on the world stage. Few in the United States will shed tears at the curtain call.

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D. Edward Knowles, a former NATO peacekeeper in the Balkans, worked for refugee resettlement agencies in Salt Lake City in the mid-1990s. He now runs a non-profit organization helping to rebuild Kosovo's social structure.

[ez]

Good article. Conventional wisdom is breaking our way.

[yianni]

French battle flag offered on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2160749477&category=4077

[Kay Soze]

NO MORE WMD’s FOR OIL

[Utah Girl]

LOL! Did you see how much the bid is up to? $16,200.00.

[Torie]

You are a bit younger than I. I recall that France was typically trying to screw the US in any way it could. What I rememer is the DeGaulle era. The French don't like Anglo Saxons. It is in their blood. There are periods of passivity, but the secular trend is clear. Having said that, I like the French and admire them. They are persistent and tough, and clever, and distinctive, and accomplished in some areas of Western culture. It will all work out, particularly since most of the trump cards currently reside in the Anglo Saxon deck. Thus we can and should be tolerant and generous and turn the other cheek when we can. It is the sort of the tall man versus the small man thingie.

[Bonaparte]

"France is no longer an ally, and should no longer be treated as such."

Amen, Richard! Tell it like it is!

[CruisinAround]

I sincerely believe Hollywood is not inherently anti-American. They just cannot live without Evian water.

[Bonaparte]

LOL! Looks like an apron too. Nice touch.

[noutopia]

While stationed at Ramstien AB Germany,my wife and I took a trip to Paris for a week long stay.The stink of the people,the way we were treated,the attitude of the French,we cut our trip short after 2 days,never will I go back to that sorry ass country.This was in 79,I'm sure they have a more bitter taste for us now.

[spokeshave]

"They just cannot live without Evian water"

They are backward and backward thinking and Evian spells Naive backwards

[Arthur McGowan]

The French have been committing suicide for a couple of centuries. Nobody went in for contraception in a bigger way in the early 20th century. Soon, there will be no French, and the Muslims will blow up Chartres and Notre Dame, and that will be that.

[A CA Guy]

As you know very well, I've seen through that crowd for quite a while.
For heavens sake, they didn't even create the French Fry.

What is really getting me mad about all this is we go through the international process and it ends up their so twisted that all they do is try and delay us or worse.

This sets up more resistance to what could have already been over in a few days.

Meanwhile the leftist/liberals/communists/progressives claim they want peace and there are no weapons of mass destruction, yet claim if we act they will hit our guys with gas and hit our homeland with weapons of mass destruction!!!!
That is so contradictory, how does their argument against war then hold up since they say there are no big weapons, but would use them against us if we go in?

What a bunch of A-holes we are up against.
They need to be outed and purged from civilized minds by doing what we need to in Iraq and then showing all that was actuall there. We need to display what the French and Germans both probably were up to there.

Lastly we have two former asinine talking ex-Democrat presidents who keep getting us in trouble and emboldening terrorist and dictators.

Just because Clinton was irrelevant and Carter was the most politically dysfunctional President, there is no reason to continue and hurt this country as they do. They are both such a disgrace. They are so....so...so..FRENCH!

[ServesURight]

Screw the French. And before any liberal FReepers blab about how the cheesies helped Washington during the American Revolution, let's just say they've been paid 100 times over.

[Bonaparte]

"...and the Muslims will blow up Chartres and Notre Dame..."

Why should they blow them up, when they make perfect stables for their camels? The French don't need them for anything but tourism, so they won't be missed.

After we wrap things up in Iraq, maybe we should liberate the good people of Ivory Coast from the oppressive rule of our former ally the French.

[Digger]

It would appear to me that the stakes are so high that France will approve or abstein from voting. The US leaving the UN - the elites cash cow! No way will these thugs allow that to happen, unfortunatly.

[noutopia]

Very well put,the French are slime,just like Clinton and the peanut boy.

[Bonaparte]

I'm right there with you, sport. And you know another thing? The French did not invent "french" bread either. The Italians did.

[A CA Guy]

They did not invent "French Bread"? The bastards...seems all they invented then would be the "BAD ATTITUDE"!!!