France's Game: French opposition to the U.S. is not about Iraq but about who runs the world

Time Magazine ^ | Monday, Mar. 24, 2003 | CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

[newgeezer]

Is there not even one Frenchman left in all of France who remembers 1944? Where is the French equivalent of Gordon Sinclair's The Americans?

[Enduring Freedom]

In every living thing you do, boycott France, for yourself, your family, your country.

BOYCOTT FRANCE FOREVER

[rwgal]

"This is not about Saddam Hussein, and this is not even about regime change in Iraq or ... missiles or chemical weapons," explains Pierre Lellouche, a conservative Parliament member and former foreign-policy adviser to Jacques Chirac. "It's about whether the United States is allowed to run world affairs."

This statement could have been made by Mad Maddie or both of the Klintoons. This is their goal. I wonder when/if the American people will ever understand this.

[new cruelty]

This reminds me of something...

[jigsaw]

President Bush should call for France to be eliminated from the Security Council and replaced by India.

[umgud]

I still believe France's opposition was to avoid being found to be the biggest supplier of banned materials to Iraq. I really look forward to the US exposing their duplicity.

[Seeking the truth]

Screw La France

[js1138]

Man I hate leftists. For the last 150 years the one an only American foreign policy imperitave has been constitutional democracy + religious freedom + freedom of speech + economic freedom = good government. We have given away every worthwhile piece of territory that so much as asked politely. We don't lecture Sweden on the evils of socialism, nor did we lecture England when it was socialist.

The simply stated Bush policy is that countries where people have individual liberty don't start wars.

[Billthedrill]

It isn't only France, it's the whole collection of internationalists who have heretofore found opposing the U.S. a risk-free means of self-aggrandizment. It is ultimately an attempt to avoid the necessary expenses and commitments of Mao's dictum that "all political power comes from the barrel of a gun" by subordinating economic and military power to the power of opinion, rhetoric, and public relations. In short, a con game.

[Tacis]

When you give the French credit for acting on principle, any principle, good or bad, you give them far too much credit. The French are all petty thieves. Jack Chiraq is simply motivated by the bribe he will receive (more likely, the bribe he has been getting that will cease) for blindly supporting Saddam.

[what's up]

France is also trying to enlist some of her African nations against the US. I believe the US will turn its attention to Africa next, after the Middle East is dealt with.

[Plutarch]

Except for the names and a few other changes, the story is the same one....

[magua]

france must be driven out of europe and pushed to north africa.it time fot them to play defense.

[newgeezer]

Already posted here.

[Plutarch]

The common denominator of the countries against us--- China, Russia, Germany, and France is Leftist politics.

Ask yourself, who is the greater threat to Socialism, a Republican U.S. President or Iraq?

The problem is that since socialism = economic failure, these countries (aside from China) find their GNP and military potential ebbing away.

So use bureacracy instead of military power to try to impede a vigorous U.S. policy. That won't get them very far.

[wretchard]

France believes it can position itself as the head of a global opposition to America. It believes that American dominance has reduced global politics to a simple choice between alternatives.

But it really doesn't want the mantle of the former USSR; really doesn't want to fight a Cold War. That would require too much muscular conflict. Rather, it plans to turn the diplomatic forums of the world into a debating platform for anti-Americanism. For it is in talk, rather than action, that France excels.

Abandoning the United Nations will bring America only a temporary respite. France will hound America like a paid chicken-suited protestor. Not a Greenpeace rally, not a World Wildlife Fundraisers, not an Organization of African Unity meeting, without France in attendance.

The American answer should be assymetrical warfare: attack the French weaknesses. The principal weaknesses of France are manifold: a plethora of dictatorially run African countries; a tendency to dominate other European countries; a large and hostile Muslim population; and a weak economy.

The first line of action should be to encourage France's African dependents to break away from Madame Le Republique. The second should be to encourage other European countries to challenge France for leadership positions in the EU. The third would be the flood France with every Arab refugee that emerges.

We should take the offensive. Hound France at every international gathering the way we hounded the USSR. Aren't there human rights violations in France? Why is there no First Amendment in France? Is it true that women are raped in the French Muslim tenements because they have no veils? Is is true that France is supporting dictators in Africa? Isn't it true that Chirac has engaged in corrupt practices? Isn't it true that France is reviving the Dreyfuss wave of anti-semitism?

Psychologically, France is like a rude and supercilious waiter with its hand out for a tip. The best way to deflate a creature like this is put a mousetrap in his pocket, a knuckle sandwich in his gut, and stogie in his puking mouth.

[ApesForEvolution]

ChIraq will pay dearly for this...

[Political Junkie Too]

This column is along the same lines as Mark Steyn's more in-depth column of a few weeks ago, It's not really about Saddam.

-PJ

[KeyWest]

Good comments.