French want abuse to stop

The Age (Australia) ^ | April 19 2003 | Nate Guidry and Michael A. Fuoco

[ellery]

The French ambassador to Washington, Jean-David Levitte, has pleaded for a stop to "French-bashing" by Americans now the war with Iraq is at an end.

Singling out prominent businessman and commentator Richard Perle, who is a close friend of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Mr Levitte said Mr Perle's "French-bashing is not very useful". He said it had triggered a vicious cycle of anti-Americanism back in France and he hoped it could now stop.

Mr Levitte's remarks came the day after French President Jacques Chirac telephoned US President George Bush and told him he wanted to play "a pragmatic role" in the reconstruction issues in Iraq.

It was the first time the two leaders had spoken since the breakdown of negotiations at the UN Security Council over Iraq and the call was accepted only after repeated pleading by French diplomats, it has emerged.

The US-French relationship faces another challenge soon. The UN Security Council must decide on the role of the UN in the reconstruction of Iraq, specifically whether a US-led administration will get access to the oil-for-food program.

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Mr Levitte would not be drawn on whether France would push for a greater UN role in Iraq, but answering critical questions from the audience at Washington's University Club, he rejected claims that France was now anxious to get a share of lucrative postwar contracts in Iraq.

"We don't consider Iraq an El Dorado," said Mr Levitte. "We don't see any cake in Iraq but we see a huge burden."

He was also pessimistic about Iraq's transition to democracy, saying it was deeply divided between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds and bringing stability and democracy to the country would be a "daunting and long-term ambition".

He explained the divisions between Europe and the US on Iraq as the result of both history and the September 11 attacks.

Mr Levitte was working in his post at the UN in New York on the day of the attack and saw the towers collapse. "Here you are at war," he said. In Europe, the battle with terrorism was more a low-intensity conflict that Europe had struggled with for several decades.

Two centuries of war and fragile borders made Europe more concerned about national sovereignty and opposed to pre-emptive military action.

[mvpel]

[scubadave]

He said it had triggered a vicious cycle of anti-Americanism...

Doesn't explain the decades of anti-Semitism in France. The firebombed synagogues, the assaults on French Jews, the vacation homes of every Palestinian terrorist. And I did not mention the desecration of the cemetaries of brave WWII servicemen!! Now that the Iraqi liberation is in effect, can we invade France and shave the heads of their madames and madamoiselles? Come to think of it, maybe we should shave their legs first...

[nicmarlo]

Oh, yes, WE started it. Of course!

ROFL....the frenchies are saying the BUSH ADMIN. started it and they're making it "keep going." Those frenchies are truly dilusional.

[EaglesUpForever]

I'll bash the french until their country is rid of anti-Semitism. In other words, I will never stop.

[Lucas1]

ROFL this is too funny...

So umm what would they like us to do about it? Perhaps PResident Bush could come on television and ask Americans to stop abusing the poor wittle french people!

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

[Tigercap]

Make them say "uncle" first.

[cowtowney]

"Two weeks ago I remember a Forbes reporter on Fox News saying the boycot won't work"

I don't believe this, but I don't care. I'm not buying anything french.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

http://www.twainquotes.com/French.html

In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.
- Innocents Abroad

The objects of which Paris folks are fond--literature, art, medicine and adultery.
- The Corpse speech, 1879

France has neither winter nor summer nor morals--apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.
- Mark Twain's Notebook

There is nothing lower than the human race except the French.
- quoted by Carl Dolmetsch, Our Famous Guest

It has always been a marvel to me--that French language; it has always been a puzzle to me. How beautiful that language is! How expressive it seems to be! How full of grace it is! And when it comes from lips like those [of Sarah Bernhardt], how eloquent and how limpid it is! And, oh, I am always deceived--I always think I am going to understand it.
- Mark Twain, a Biography

M. de Lamester's new French dictionary just issued in Paris defines virtue as: "A woman who has only one lover and don't steal."
- quoted in A Bibliography of Mark Twain, Merle Johnson

I like to look at a Russian or a German or an Italian--I even like to look at a Frenchman if I ever have the luck to catch him engaged in anything that ain't delicate.
- Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven

It is human to like to be praised; one can even notice it in the French.
- "What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us"

In certain public indecencies the difference between a dog & a Frenchman is not perceptible.
- Notebook #17, October 1878 - February 1879

It appears that at last census that every man in France over 16 years of age & under 116, has at least 1 wife to whom he has never been married. French novels, talk, drama & newspaper bring daily & overwhelming proofs that the most of the married ladies have paramours. This makes a good deal of what we call crime, and the French call sociability.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879

France has usually been governed by prostitutes.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879

French are the connecting link between man & the monkey.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879

Trivial Americans go to Paris when they die.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879

It is the language for lying compliment, for illicit love & for the conveying of exquisitely nice shades of meaning in bright graceful & trivial conversations--the conveying, especially of double-meanings, a decent & indecent one so blended as--nudity thinly veiled, but gauzily & lovelily.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879

A Frenchman's home is where another man's wife is.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879

An isolated & helpless young girl is perfectly safe from insult by a Frenchman, if he is dead.
- Notebook #20, Jan. 1882 - Feb. 1883

A dead Frenchman has many good qualities, many things to recommend him; many attractions--even innocencies. Why cannot we have more of these?
- Notebook #20, Jan. 1882 - Feb. 1883

[Tribune7]

France no longer exists. We are changing the name to South Germany on our maps.

[never4get]

Any country who loves Jerry Lewis to the point they do deserves to be bashed......
In addition to having his own National Holiday (March 8th), Jerry Lewis was awarded one of France's highest and most distinguished honors the French Legion of Honor in 1984.

Mr. Lewis is "worshipped" by many in France as a sort of comic deity. In fact, Many Parisian residents have small plaster statues of the "Nutty Professor" in their gardens. Residents of Alsace, it is said, prefer bronze statues of the "Geisha Boy".

In a recent survey of French school children, 81% said they wanted to be like Jerry Lewis when they grow up. Only 7% said they wanted to be like French philosopher Voltaire.

[411 freedom fighter]

Jean-David is wrong about the war being over. The war against terrorism and those that support it (like the french,the russians, the chinese) is just starting.

[Hank Rearden]

I do believe we're just getting warmed up.

[mhking]

"French-bashing is not very useful".

But American-bashing is OK? They'll get over it. Just send 'em a fruit-basket.

[antaresequity]

Feel Free to Email the Washington DC French Consulate Office

consulat-washington@amb-wash.fr

 

[mitchbert]

It's French disease. French Canadians suffer from it as well. They openly try to break up the country, insult every other province by making no bones about the fact the only useful thing about Confederation to them is the ability to extract money from others and then stomp their feet mewling that "we don't like them" when we call them on it.

Babies.

[Tribune7]

It appears that at last census that every man in France over 16 years of age & under 116, has at least 1 wife to whom he has never been married.

That explains everything. Tim Robbins is French.

[Howlin]

I am convinced there is nothing on the face of the earth that cannot be laid right at our feet. Our mere existence evidently drives most of them right up the wall.

[Courier]

>Singling out prominent businessman and commentator Richard Perle<

Wish I were Perle. The most powerful man who has ever lived.

Although I have a hunch that one joke from Letterman or Leno does more damage to France then all the words spoken by Perle for his entire life.

[Anamensis]

They bash us continually for 50 years, then when we finally take notice and retaliate, they whine.

Just makes me despise them more. And that's funny, cause I didn't think I COULD despise them more. But it turns out I can! Who'd have thought?

[kcvl]

"French bashing may be a game in the United States but it is a dangerous game because it fuels anti-Americanism in France at the moment when we don't have anti-American feelings."

"To rebuild Iraq will be very costly."

SNIP

"But you don't have billions of dollars for that. You don't have money."

SNIP

"So the choice is either for the United States...to go alone and pay the bill or to involve others to pay and participate in the reconstruction of Iraq."

SNIP

" to rebuild Iraq is a daunting task. And my guess is that you will not do that alone."