Posted on 02/22/2005 6:20:20 PM PST by wagglebee
IRAQ war wobbler Jacques Chirac scuttled George Bush’s fence-mending trip to Europe yesterday — by cranking up a row over the future of Nato.
He embraced a German-led plot to ditch the alliance as the backbone of transatlantic relations, in favour of the European Union.
He also snubbed President Bush by speaking French at a dinner, despite having fluent English.
(Excerpt) Read more at thesun.co.uk ...
GWB: "Oh, please don't throw me in that briar patch, Mr. Chirac...!"
Post of the day?
Chirac once again prooved that he is ignorant and a low life . Someday France ..some day ..you'll need the USA AGAIN..to bail your sorry asses out of trouble..We have LONG LONG memories here in the US..I wouldnt lift a finger or send a penny to help those 2 faced coward French bastards. If only Mark Twain were here to comment on them one more time.
Ha ha ha! You nailed it!
"Mr. Gorbaciov, knock down that wall!"
Whereas our geniuses at best would have suggested ways of making it prettier!
Exactly. I am noticing all the time that Europe is so interested in aesthetics and not at all focused on the chess game going on in the world. Say what you want about Bush; he is trying to effect beneficial change for people in this world who are not born yet. A lot of the EU posturing is just that. No courage to stand up to evil. It's all about how things LOOK rather than how things ARE.
"I speak Spanish to God, French to women, English to men and Japanese to my horse." -B. Banzai
Ciao Yaelle,
Put it this way: Europe, at present, is very good at drinking the wine, but absolutely careless and shoddy about taking care of the vine. And because of this, she is destined both to diminishing returns and diminishing enjoyment.
"The French couldn't even get their troops to Bosnia/Kosovo when needed. They had to commandeer several tourist ferries off the Sardinia/Corsica run."
They couldn't get relief to Tsunami victims without many days delay to rent helicopters.
Sure there's a plan. Bush has leverage in NATO, but not with the EU. It's in our interest, therefore, to keep the EU from developing its own forces and to keep NATO viable. Chirac, instead, wants the EU to become another superpower--a rival one day to the US.
For decades Europe got a free ride while we did the heavy lifting. While we complained, they coasted. But now it's in our own interest for the Europeans to continue relying on us instead of competing militarily. The last thing we need is another superpower coming on the scene as a countervalence to ourselves just as China is emerging and coming into its own in opposition to us. This is why Bush is making nice and declaring that nothing can come between Europe and ourselves. He is saying, in effect, there is no need to build up your own force--we will continue as always to protect you.
Personally, I'm not too concerned with EU dreams of grandeur. Chirac may want EU to have its own forces, but Europe is too decadent to deflect money from the welfare state for its own defense. My bet is they'll continue to opt for the free ride. Bush would like that just fine.
President Bush is not just a brilliant politician but wise at the game of life. Beneath the Texas drawl stans a man with a rare and unique understanding of human nature.
The campaigns: Remember smarmy Gore, so much smarter than Bush and the rest of us? Remember "Don't-you-know-who-I-am" Kerry? These men made asses of themselves, placing themselves on contrastive display before the American people. The loud braying and hee-hawing, all the scoffing about Bush the idiot by their phalanx of minions, and by proxy the unspoken slight against the average American heralded their demise on Election Day.
I see similar dynamics at work here.
You forgot Poland.
Europe is going broke. They have no armies and cant afford to do much about it . Not to worry
The funny thing is, Chirac knows that Bush knows. haha
The BBC leans so far left they need suction cups on their shoes so they don't topple over.
Mentioning that she is fluent in French and should have spoken French.
Leave it to our America hating media to stir the pot.
Of course, this is purely speculation on my part. Perhaps it is their media stirring the pot by suggesting that Chirac speaking French is a snub.
Our reacting to any in the media is a bit dangerous.
I used to travel to Europe on business for an international company and we had posted social do's and dont's for both sides of the big pond.
One of them was from the European side that reminded them to speak in English, because even to them it was considered to be in very poor taste to speak a language that their "guest" couldn't understand.
In my experience they were serious about it, and wouldn't talk in their language unless they explained why. On very few occasions the local I was with would run into an acquaintance who didn't speak English, and would explain that to me before he answered or talked to that person.
They may have been running a scam on me, but I didn't get that impression at all. I always felt that they knew it was rude and thats why they avoided it.
Shy and retiring, that's me!!! Add reserved to that. I know all that about Bush and Chirac, but I hate to see our President (and our Country) "diss'ed" like that. When I was a child (11-17 yrs), I lived in Morocco for 6 years. It was still French Morocco so I have lived among them (the French). Even then (1954-1960) -- dealing with us peons -- our counterparts would never miss a chance to insult or denigrate us and our country. That will never change. I file it under the category: Jealousy.
Too bad the brits joined with EU to tell Poland not to buy Boeing aircraft. Lucrative aircraft contracts are apparently what the EU hangs its hat on for survival. It's going to get nastier the further Europe slides into Islaamicization. Chirac is lower than a snake belly in a wagon rut and doesn't care who knows it. What a maroon.
There's no point in Bush trying to be friendly with that guy. He should just forget about Chirac.
I'm not surprised. Are you? Who cares? Bush doesn't and neither do I. Chirac is irrelevant and couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag. He's nothing and he has shown the world who is is.
Now I'm going to go enjoy some Freedom Fries finished off with some Freedom Vanilla Ice Cream. :)
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