Posted on 07/11/2003 6:27:53 AM PDT by schaketo
It's been fun, but isn't it time to stop bashing the French? The gleeful stomping on all things from France has progressed from the moronic to the pathetic.
First, there was the dimwit stuff, like renaming french fries "freedom fries" in congressional cafeterias. Now we have student-exchange programs unable to find American homes willing to take in French students over the summer. That's depressing.
Like a chronic ailment, Francophobia flares now and then, especially when France tries to frustrate the United States on the world stage. The source of today's friction is, of course, the war in Iraq.
A walk down memory lane of low points in Franco-American relations inevitably pauses at 1966, when Charles de Gaulle pulled France out of NATO. Then, as now, American restaurant owners poured perfectly good French wine down the drain, at least while the news cameras were rolling.
Today, Americans and the French have one thing in common: They detest each other's leader. A good French friend of mine is a perfect example. She was an exchange student here years ago, has happy memories of waiting tables in Wyoming and is generally well disposed toward the United States.
But George W. Bush drives her nuts. And it's probably his style more than his politics. A Dick Cheney who pushes an individualistic, every-man-for-himself philosophy in a frank manner may be disagreed with but not hated. The spectacle of Bush alternating between tax cuts for the rich and displays of religious piety, however, sends my friend over the deep end.
Americans, for their part, have no obligation to admire French President Jacques Chirac (also a former exchange student in the United States). The cagey old pol has undoubtedly exploited anti-American feelings in France, also a latent force, to distract attention from his various scandals at home. For example, a now deceased member of his Gaullist Party describes on tape how he handed over $720,000 in cash to a Chirac aide as the boss, then mayor of Paris, looked on. Were it not for a court ruling that a sitting president cannot be dragged before a judge, Chirac might be behind bars today.
For Americans, lingering anger over Iraq obscures how very much France and the United States work together around the globe. Last month, Chirac announced that France would send its own special forces to fight alongside Americans in Afghanistan.
The French already play an active role there, training Afghan soldiers. "We still have french fries here," an American Special Forces officer, who runs a training center in Kabul, recently told the Wall Street Journal.
Bush has openly thanked the French for freely sharing their intelligence on terrorist activity with the United States. Fighting terrorism is, of course, very much in France's interest. Intelligence reports last year suggested that al-Qaeda cells were planning "spectaculars" in several countries at once, with France a prime target.
France keeps close tabs on potential terrorists, who are known to hide out among France's large Muslim population. In December, the French police picked up four suspects linked to a group that had planned to blow up the Strasbourg cathedral.
France has picked up other international burdens, notably Congo's civil war. Today, French troops have the unenviable job of keeping two warring tribes apart. Some of the combatants are 12-year-olds, who express an eagerness to shoot French soldiers.
The French are about to celebrate their Fourth of July, which happens to fall on the 14th of July. The 14th commemorates the destruction in 1789 of the Bastille, the political prison in Paris that symbolized despotism. Its liberation set off a revolution that was far bloodier than ours, but equally world-changing.
A key to the Bastille now hangs in the hall of George Washington's Mount Vernon estate. It was a gift from the Marquis de Lafayette, who had served under Washington in the Revolutionary War.
Bastille Day is going to be a working Monday in the United States and definitely a non-holiday for professional Francophobes. But Americans with an open mind should find some commonality in the French waving a blue, white and red flag 10 days after we waved red, white and blue - in both cases honoring revolutions for the rights of man. What a fine occasion to give our animosities a rest.
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Chirac admits helping Serbian general avoid extradition for war crimes and suddenly Chirac does not like the ICC.
The ELF trial has finished up showing such craven corruption in Africa by French state owned oil that it makes CIA adventures abroad seem like tiddly winks.
Does anyone else have a hard time with this moral equilivancy? Just a note to Miss (Ms.??) Harrop, taking bribes in your office is illegal. Breaking the law is not the same thing as having a different tax policy or a faith in Jesus!!!!!
Further, I wanted to point out that while what Chirac did here was despicable, it isn't the reason why Americans don't like him. We don't like him because at a time when we NEEDED to act in our own self interest, France did everything they could to stop us... including giving aid and comfort to our enemies. I could care less about local French politics, it's the geo political stuff that bugs me!
Sorry you think it's gauche.
With deep pride, I will stand up for America and our troops. I will hold the French accountable. SF *Freeping the French ~ Bastille Day* link
My hope is that I'll get to meet the French consul general who should be in attendance, and politely but firmly tell him how disgusted Americans are with France.
Ignorance on parade. The Bastille wasn't destroyed. A mob stormed it and freed a handful of prisoners. That's all.
Typical Leftist tripe. When one is justifiably revulsed by the conduct of a given group, their angst is poo-poo'd as *-phobia.
They honestly should look at what phobia really means. It is derived from the Greek word phobos, meaning fear.
Anyone with a lick of sense knows nobody has any cause to fear the French (unless we're talking about hideously skanky body odor)...
Fear the French? Nope. Detest them with every fiber of my being for the scum they are? You betcha.
-Jay
Not only that, after all the fuss (and the mob killing DeLaunay the warden and putting his head on a pike after he surrendered the prison) the handful of prisoners (all of seven!) were petty criminals confined for misdemeanors - no political prisoners anywhere near the place.
So, as usual, the French got it all wrong, committed treachery, murder, etc. and didn't accomplish much of anything. So typical!
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