Posted on 11/08/2004 1:30:41 AM PST by kattracks
PARIS - It's a good thing Europeans don't vote in American elections. If they did, chances are President Bush would have been trounced.The 43rd President of the United States may have won a powerful vote of confidence from his countrymen, but an awful lot of sour Europeans - not to mention a significant number of bitter Asians, Africans and Middle Easterners - still consider him an international bad guy.
It's not just the war in Iraq. It is the President's very American sense of decisive, strong leadership; of placing U.S. security (and that of the entire free world) above diplomatic niceties. In Europe's twisted thinking, Bush is nothing more than the epitome of the "Ugly American," the arrogant, gun-toting cowboy many Europeans and other non-Americans love to hate out of their own sense of inferiority, jealousy, bitterness and often downright ignorance of facts and figures.
Whatever the case, no American President in recent history has been so vilified - especially by the Europeans. Even the 60th anniversary of the American-led D-Day invasion was cause for despicable attacks on Bush. One French magazine had the gall to question whether the American President should even come to Normandy for the anniversary celebrations.
Ironically, says pro-American French Parliamentarian Pierre Lellouche, Europeans "convinced themselves that President Bush was some sort of 'temporary disease,' " something that would last one term.
The real irony is that while most Europeans remain convinced that a victory by John Kerry would have rendered major changes in foreign policy and improved relations with America's fair-weather friends overseas, the reality is that little but atmospherics would have changed. Kerry may have cousins in Normandy and even speak French, but does anyone seriously think that Jacques Chirac would have been any more willing to send French troops to help secure Iraqi security with Kerry in the White House than he was during a Bush administration? Or that a President Kerry would have consulted with Germany's Gerhard Schroeder every time he wanted to make a move?
Neither would there have been much difference to the Middle East. Their tactics may strongly differ. But both Bush and Kerry understand that at this moment in history, we can neither walk away from Iraq nor from the war on terror. Moreover, when it comes to the nagging Arab-Israeli conflict, the key problem has been the lack of effective Palestinian leadership.
Ronald Reagan also was globally vilified during his first term, then earned the respect of many nations around the world during his second term. That's what thinking Europeans and others around the world are hoping for now.
The President has already declared his willingness to stretch out his hand to reinvigorate traditional alliances. I applaud that. We cannot simply dismiss the French nor ignore the concerns of people and governments around the world. We must hear what they think and better explain ourselves. But that doesn't mean kowtowing to phony international self-righteousness. Not by any means.
Stanley Crouch has the day off.
Originally published on November 8, 2004
Ding!Ding! We have a winner!
We don't CARE what they think. When will they ever get that through their thick skulls?
Yes we can. Germany is understandable, France is not. France has a really short memory.
Jean Francois Revel in his Anti-Americanism gives us a good explanation for world anti-Americanism, particularly the French variety. I have a slightly different take.
In 1969, on my first trip to France, I was impressed by two things: Pock marks on the concrete walls and abutments along the Seine, from street fighting during the "recent" war, and the level of Anti-American hostility; "Nixon go home" graffiti was everywhere.
The French Empire was in the final stages of disintegration, its world importance was approaching zero then. The had lost indochina and left the mess for the Americans to clean up. They were getting their butts kicked in Algeria and Lebanon, they had nothing to look forward to but more of the same worldwide.
But they solved the problem in their inimitable French way: they commited national suicide. The actually imported all the haters that were part of the world they were fighting. And continue to do so to this day.
Their sense of guilt and helplessness makes them an unreliable ally and their sense of lost "power" makes them arrogant to a fault. Keep your eye on this bunch.
When their mammary gets in the wringer and they ask for help next time, I would riot in the streets before I support the suggestion that we should help them and save their butts yet one more time! Short memory is a permanent affliction.
BUMP
It's been a long time since I read it but wasn't the "Ugly American," in the book of the same name, a good guy?
This just makes the win so much sweeter.
Choke on it, euroweenies.
Oh, not so fast! There WAS a key difference between the two. Kerry would have abandoned our war against Islamofascists faster than you can say "Peace Dividend" and "National Health Care".
That's why Bush won.
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