Free Republic

September 26, 2003France writes itself off as arrogant failureby charles brumner New books see a country in declineFRANCE is a nation in decline, blind to its failings and living beyond its means while strutting with empty arrogance on the world stage. That may sound like the standard Francophobe rant from across the Channel or the Atlantic but it is, surprisingly, a view gaining ground in France. Doubts about Gallic supremacy have been a periodic feature of France for centuries. They have now returned, fed by economic gloom and amplified by bestselling books. France, according to the thesis, has been overtaken...

"I cannot tell a lie" - George Washington IT'S LIKE the story of the thief who yelled "Stop, thief!" The dossier against Saddam Hussein that President George Bush presented to the UN General Assembly on 12 September 2002 was called A Decade of Lies and Deceit. And what did he offer for proof? Lies. He claimed that Iraq had close links with the al-Qaida network and was a threat to the security of the United States because it had "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD) - a scary phrase invented by his media advisers. Three months after the victory of...