Posted on 08/27/2007 8:22:03 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
France's Sarkozy raises prospect of Iran airstrikes Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:25AM EDT
By Francois Murphy
PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday a diplomatic push by the world's powers to rein in Tehran's nuclear program was the only alternative to "an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran".
In his first major foreign policy speech, Sarkozy emphasized his existing foreign policy priorities, such as opposing Turkish membership of the European Union and pushing for a new Mediterranean Union that he hopes will include Ankara.
He also presented some new ideas, such as possibly renewing high-level dialogue with Syria and expanding the Group of Eight industrialized nations to include the biggest developing states.
Sarkozy said a nuclear-armed Iran would be unacceptable and that major powers should continue their policy of incrementally increasing sanctions against Tehran while being open to talks if Iran suspended nuclear activities.
"This initiative is the only one that can enable us to escape an alternative that I say is catastrophic: the Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran," he said, adding that it was the worst crisis currently facing the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Kentuckians could have overwhelmed the meagre forces Napoleon could spare to garrison the Louisiana territory in the time it took a flatboat to reach the lower Mississippi. Mere weeks, and they were spoiling to do it. The three million dollars france got was just the first in a long line of charitable contributions from Washington.
I believe it. I have seen you Kentuckians overwhelm parts of Ohio.
Don’t forget Michigan
Zero, you’re not French are you? cuz your reaction seemed a bit hysterical :-)
I am not a reflexive France basher, although I have a pretty low opinion of their behavior on the world stage over several hundred years. Because the French also have their charms and a rich culture with much to admire, I make a deliberate effort not to obsess over their international record.
I don't propose to hit even the high (low, actually) points of that record here, but only to make a couple of points in response to your celebration of their role in the American Revolution.
While they provided critical assistance to our fledgling democracy, it needs to be kept in mind that they were strictly in pursuit of French interests, particularly the thwarting of the English. Nor was the Louisiana Purchase, as you hint, any act of generosity toward the U.S. In fact, I would say that while all nations have "interests" rather than "friends," the cynical pursuit of purely national interests is a more striking feature of French foreign policy than is the case with some other nations, the U.S. in particular.
But just as the French did not pull our fat out of the fire for altruistic reasons in the American Revolution, so it was not to save France that American boys stormed the beaches of Normandy. We were happy to save them, but we were there for our own larger purposes.
What is striking though, was the arrogant post WWII attitude toward the U.S. that has been such a part of French foreign policy ever since the war. And the French, by the way, did not so much lose the war as decline to fight it. Vichy collaborationist Philippe Pètain was enormously popular in his decision to turn unoccupied France into a Fascist ally of Hitler. France only swung back to the Allied side after their fling with the Nazis went sour. And even then De Gaulle was a pain in the butt.
But at the liberation of Paris, it seemed almost all a French show, De Gaulle saying, Liberated by itself, liberated by its people with the help of the French armies, with the support and the help of the whole France, of the fighting France, of the only France, of the real France, of the eternal France!
Yea, a little later he gave a nod to "our dear and admirable allies," but it seemed, in his account, mostly a French show. Absurd beyond words.
And the French, of course, wanted to retain their colonial empires in Indochina and Africa and join the U.S., Britain, and Russia as occupying powers in Germany and on the U.N. Security Council, all of which we allowed them. France that grand nation. [sarcasm]
But then came another great challenge to democracy and world peace from belligerent, Stalinist Russia. And where was France in this great struggle between the West and the Soviets? France preferred to take a neutral position between liberty and evil so as to aggrandize itself just as much as possible. It is a despicable record. For decades of the cold war, France refused to stand firmly with America and Britain. They just didn't see the glory in it.
Sarkozy is the first real hopeful development in French politics in a long, long time. But don't pull my heart strings about the cynical help the French gave to the U.S. in its revolution. Please. It might make me throw up.
If he is serious, will he allow our over flights?
France suddenly grew a pair. Is that nation so complacent to undergo such a complete turn around based on only a new prime minister?
Uh oh...he’s on the same page as Bush...
WOW
What number is this Universe?? I must have been translocated by Aliens...
This is nothing short of AMAZING, a French leader with Balls??? Can it be TRUE???
Better wait and see....
I think I am gonna buy a Powerball ticket just in case, this may well be my lucky week.
OMG that is a terrifying thought............
C’est evident, mon cher Sergei, ne c’est pas impossible que tu ne cacherais une certaine admiration personelle pour la belle France, malgré toi?
Moi? Hysterique? Je pense que non!
La belle France — la France profonde — c’est un pays très conservateur, très traditionnel, malgré tout. J’admire beaucoup qu’on respecte bien et préserve les choses d’autrefois.
I’m not sure if this is heavy-duty sarcasm, but w/ logic like this, I’m sure you also support reparations for slavery...
But I still don't know why this would lead you to believe that I believe in Les Réparations, unless of course they are to be paid to France for letting the Louisiana Purchase go too cheaply.
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