Wimps, weasels and monkeys - the US media view of 'perfidious France'

Guardian ^ | 2/11/03 | Gary Younge

[Ranger]

Dissenters in Europe become the first victims - of a war of words

Gary Younge in New York and Jon Henley in Paris
Tuesday February 11, 2003
The Guardian

The "petulant prima donna of realpolitik" is leading the "axis of weasels", in "a chorus of cowards". It is an unholy alliance of "wimps" and ingrates which includes one country that is little more than a "mini-me minion", another that is in league with Cuba and Libya, with a bunch of "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" at the helm.

Welcome to Europe, as viewed through the eyes of American commentators and newspapers yesterday, as Euro-bashing, and particularly anti-French sentiment, reached new heights. In a barrage of insults and invective which ranged from the basest tabloid rants to the loftiest columnists on the most respected newspapers, European-led resistance to America's war plans in Iraq was portrayed not as a diplomatic position to be negotiated as a genetic weakness in the European mindset which makes them reluctant to fight wars and incapable of winning them.

The front page of Rupert Murdoch's New York Post yesterday shows the graves of Normandy with the headline: "They died for France but France has forgotten." "Where are the French now, as Americans prepare to put their soldiers on the line to fight today's Hitler, Saddam Hussein?" asks the pugnacious columnist Steve Dunleavy. "Talking appeasement. Wimping out. How can they have forgotten?" A cartoon in the same paper shows an ostrich with its head in the sand below the words: "The national bird of France."

If such language is proving a headache for the diplomats, then spare a thought for the French translators, who have struggled for words to convey the full force of the venom. "Cheese-eating surrender monkeys" - a phrase coined by Bart Simpson but made acceptable in official diplomatic channels around the globe by Jonah Goldberg, a columnist for the rightwing weekly National Review (according to Goldberg) - was finally rendered: " Primates capitulards et toujours en quête de fromages ". And the New York Post's "axis of weasel" lost much of its venom when translated as a limp " axe de faux jetons " (literally, "axis of devious characters").

American wrath has been reserved for those nations which oppose their leadership, particularly following the decision to oppose shifting Nato resources to Turkey. "Three countries - France, Germany and their mini-me minion, Belgium - have moved from opposition to US policy toward Iraq into formal, and consequential obstructionism," argued the Wall Street Journal in an editorial yesterday. "If there is a war [the Turks] will face the danger of direct attack that is not feared in the chocolate shops of Brussels." The front page of the National Review blares "Putsch" with a sub-headline: "How to defeat the Franco-German power grab."

While the jibes may be puerile, the possibility that the Bush administration and commercial outlets might follow them up with punitive measures has struck some as pernicious. An ad, due to come out soon, shows three German-made cars, including an Audi and a BMW, driving towards the camera with a voice saying: "Do you really want to buy a German car?"

If there has been any European country that has attracted more contempt than others, it is France. In the Wall Street Journal, Christopher Hitchens described Jacques Chirac as "a positive monster of conceit _ the abject procurer for Saddam ... the rat that tried to roar". In the Washington Post, George Will opined that the "oily" foreign affairs minister, Dominique de Villepin, had launched France into "an exercise for which France has often refined its savoir-faire since 1870, which is to say retreat - this time into incoherence".

And in the New York Times, Thomas Friedman argued that France should be removed from the security council and be replaced with India: "India is just so much more serious than France these days. France is so caught up with its need to differentiate itself from America to feel important, it's become silly." The Wall Street Journal editor, Max Boot, argues: "France has been in decline since, oh, about 1815, and it isn't happy about it." What particularly galls the Gauls is that their rightful place in the world has been usurped by the gauche Americans."

At its ugliest, the transatlantic bile is becoming increasingly personal. When France Inter radio's correspondent in Washington, Laurence Simon, started to explain her government's position to Fox News (owned by Murdoch) she was interrupted by the presenter. "With friends like you, who needs enemies," she was told as she was taken off air.

[CedarDave]

Was the "Axis of Weasels" phrase coined by the NY Post or a FReeper?? I've heard both.

[Dialup Llama]

"cheese-eating surrender monkeys"

I dont recall this phrase being used at all outside of FR.

[Question_Assumptions]

The phrase "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" is from The Simpson (spoken by Groundskeeper Willie with a thick Scottish accent).

[Question_Assumptions]

I think that people are simply saying in public what they've been saying in private for years now. Almost none of the anti-French names nor jokes are new. Indeed, even the movie Death Race 2000 made fun of the French.

[Shermy]

Welcome to Europe, as viewed through the eyes of American commentators

Shallow anti-americanism pandering itself since "Europe" isn't the target.

[Cicero]

Hey, what goes around comes around. The media in Europe has been throwing insults at America for fifty years. And Americans finally sat up and noticed.

Here's a phrase Freepers may find useful:

Primates capitulards et toujours en quête de fromages.

[CFC__VRWC]

Welcome to Europe, as viewed through the eyes of American commentators and newspapers yesterday, as Euro-bashing, and particularly anti-French sentiment, reached new heights.

Oh, WAH-WAH-WAH!! BOO-F@#$IN'-HOO!!

For decades, Americans have been called cowboys, barbarians, uncultured savages, baby killers, religious nuts, and much, much worse by the European media. Half of the Euro media quietly toasted Osama bin Laden on 9/11, while the other half loudly proclaimed that the attacks were all America's fault.

And now they get their panties in a bunch because we call them "cheese-eating surrender monkeys." Excuse me if I refuse to lose any sleep over their hurt feelings.

[Verginius Rufus]

The French word for "weasel" is belette, according to my French-English dictionary.

Axe de belettes?

[Nick Danger]

L'axe de faux jetons

[Balata]

[Defiant]

Neither. It was popularized by a blog called "Scrappleface", but the earliest use was by an internet poster called "Cowardly Pundit" in November 2002.

[cebadams]

[KaiserofKrunch]

I must protest! french cannot be "surrender monkeys," as monkeys are vertebrates and by definition have a BACKBONE. Something like "surrender snails," or "surrender slugs," seems to be more appropriate given their cullinary predispostion.

[Redcloak]

Bon jourrrrrrrrr, ya cheese eatin' surrender monkeys!