Our War With France

N.Y. Times ^ | Sept. 18, 2003 | THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

[End Times Sentinel]

Our War With France

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

t's time we Americans came to terms with something: France is not just our annoying ally. It is not just our jealous rival. France is becoming our enemy.

If you add up how France behaved in the run-up to the Iraq war (making it impossible for the Security Council to put a real ultimatum to Saddam Hussein that might have avoided a war), and if you look at how France behaved during the war (when its foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, refused to answer the question of whether he wanted Saddam or America to win in Iraq), and if you watch how France is behaving today (demanding some kind of loopy symbolic transfer of Iraqi sovereignty to some kind of hastily thrown together Iraqi provisional government, with the rest of Iraq's transition to democracy to be overseen more by a divided U.N. than by America), then there is only one conclusion one can draw: France wants America to fail in Iraq.

(SNIP)

What is so amazing to me about the French campaign — "Operation America Must Fail" — is that France seems to have given no thought as to how this would affect France. Let me spell it out in simple English: if America is defeated in Iraq by a coalition of Saddamists and Islamists, radical Muslim groups — from Baghdad to the Muslim slums of Paris — will all be energized, and the forces of modernism and tolerance within these Muslim communities will be on the run. To think that France, with its large Muslim minority, where radicals are already gaining strength, would not see its own social fabric affected by this is fanciful.

(SNIP)

But then France has never been interested in promoting democracy in the modern Arab world, which is why its pose as the new protector of Iraqi representative government — after being so content with Saddam's one-man rule — is so patently cynical.

Clearly, not all E.U. countries are comfortable with this French mischief, yet many are going along for the ride. It's stunning to me that the E.U., misled by France, could let itself be written out of the most important political development project in modern Middle East history. The whole tone and direction of the Arab-Muslim world, which is right on Europe's doorstep, will be affected by the outcome in Iraq. It would be as if America said it did not care what happened in Mexico because it was mad at Spain.

(SNIP)

[End Times Sentinel]

Great article by Friedman.  He ought to consider writing for the NY Post or Washington Times to garner better credibility.

Owl_Eagle

" WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH"

[SpinyNorman]

The Times get credibility from him. There just aren't enough Friedmans and too many Blairs.....

[Paradox]

Friedman is the only good thing about the NYT that I can think of off-hand. I often disagree with his columns, but if he is a liberal, he is an honest one. I'd say even when I disagree with him, I pay attention to what he says about it, because he is not some raving lefty loony. I like the guy.

[Diogenesis]

[cousair]

You know what??? Who really cares??!! THe French have really never been any different...remember WW2?? The didn't put their own on the line (only the Free French who helped a little) but they just are along with anyone who has strength and power. They lecture the USA and expect $$. THey wouldn't even have a seat on the Security Council if it weren't for the USA....and they NEVER lead...they just lecture and expect the world to listen..and the boycott is truly working here. I think America has had enough of French insults.

[pcx99]

I wanna know how this guy got hired by the NY times!

Somebody over there was asleep at the switch the day he got hired.

[Wheee The People]

France is becoming our enemy.

[ZULU]

"What is so amazing to me about the French campaign — "Operation America Must Fail" — is that France seems to have given no thought as to how this would affect France."

The arrogance of the French is only exceeded by their vindictiveness and petulence. The fact that they are cutting off their own nose in not supporting us is irrelevant when compared to their vital need to humiliate anyone they perceive as a competitor to their self-effected superiority, especially if that somebody is Germanic or Anglo.

The French are not only NOT our allies and friends now - they have ALWAYS been our enemies.

1689-1763 French and Indian Wars France uses native Americans as their tools to terrorize and intimidate Anglo-Americans on Eastern Seaboard. French Catholic forcibly convert Proestant captives purchased from Indians.

1783 - French attempt to pull a fast one on their American allies and the British by getting a treaty adopted approving the status quo, i.e. with the British maintaining control of whatever territory they hold in North America and the rest of the area being granted its freedom in an attempt to use the Americans as a tool against British interest in the next, inevitable, Anglo-French War. British don't buy it.

1791 - 1800 Quasi War with France - French privateers engage in a guerilla war at sea against American shipping as we were unwilling to help them in their war with Britain.

1864-1867 French attempt to establish an "Empire" under "Emperor" Maxilian, a dupe of theirs in Mexico, while the U.S. is tied up in its bloody Civil War, violating the Monroe Doctrine.

1917 - World War 1 The U.S. gets suckered into an unnnecessary war with the Kaiser by the British who were in turn suckered into an unnecessary war by the vengeful French, stil smarting from their just defeat by Bismarck in the Franco Prussian War

1941-1945 Vichy French traitors carry on a war against their "Liberators" by aiding the Nazi war machine. Strutting peacock DeGaulle succeeds in conning the British and Americans to give the French part of occupied Germany even though they did nothing really effective in helping us win the war.

Late 1940's France refuses to help with Berlin airlift

1950's Peacock DeGaulle asserts his Francophilic superiority by kicking NATO forces out of France.

Early 1960's France suckers U.S into involvement in Southeast Asia

1980's France refuses to allow American Aircraft to fly over France in attacking Libya, resulting in deaths of two American pilots due to long detour.


The Franch have been enemies of the British, Dutch, Flemings, Spanish, Italians, Germans and Austrians since time immemorial.

They are our enemies now, and always will be.

[stubernx98]

Totally agree with your sentiments. On any article I read, I first look for who wrote it, then if its from the NY Times, Boston Globe, SF Chronicle - I pass it by.

[ZULU]

I forgot one.

1763 - Departing beaten French incite Ponitiac's Rebellion against American settlers and British occupying forces by deliberatly lying and telling the Ottowas and their allied tribes that the Great French Father Onontio will be returning to help his red children again.

[Lexington Green]

"Hang yourself, brave Crillon. We fought at Arques, and you were not there."
- King Henry IV ("LeGrand"),
to Crillon after a great victory, appeared in a note to Voltaire's "Henriade", VIII, 109

[Billthedrill]

Hmm...maybe he lurks at FR. We've been talking about this for months.

It is a somewhat rare thing for the chief executive and the foreign minister of a putative ally to publicly state that opposition to the United States has become a matter of broad policy instead of a single instance. I don't think the gravity of this matter has been widely appreciated in the hustle and bustle of military activities in Iraq.

If it isn't what they meant to say then they should retract it, but I don't think anything of the sort is forthcoming. What I refer to are numerous statements on the part of Chirac and Villepin to the effect that they intend to form overall European Union political and military structures to act as a "counterweight" to U.S. efforts in those areas, at least to the limit of their ability to do so in what is ostensibly a federation incorporating different countries' policies on the matter. In reality, of course, the French are rather disproportionately influential in this regard, and their comments on the matter need to be given a corresponding weight.

What is significant about this is twofold: first, that such opposition becomes a matter of strategic policy, and second, that it opposes the actions and expressed intentions of other EU member states. As to the first, such "counterweight" policies tend to take on lives of their own - they must act in opposition or cease to be, hence there is a tendency toward the reflexive and ill-considered that has, since DeGaulle, been an extant characteristic of French foreign policy, or at least of those aspects of it which the respective governments have chosen to share with the public. These policies can, as both the U.S. and the Soviet Union found to their regret during the Cold War, even act against the interests of the countries employing them. It's a clumsy and reactionary way to conduct foreign affairs.

As to the second, it is to be remembered that there is more at stake here than merely one notably prickly country's relationships. The French are also attempting to secure for themselves a position of influence in the formation and conduct of overall EU policy, and to the degree to which this opposes the stated positions of other member states (Britain, Poland, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands, for example, with respect to Iraq) it constitutes a rather disturbing attempt at the seizure of the reins of this nascent superpower. That has not gone unnoticed in those countries, and to a degree it will dictate the power relationships within the EU as well as those outside it. It is more than the U.S. on whom the French are making war here.

[End Times Sentinel]

I appreciate your efforts, but it's excerpted for a reason- we can't publish full length NYT Articles.

Owl_Eagle

" WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH"

[winner3000]

I am shocked that this article was written by the same Thomas Friedman whose prior article dripped with demented anti-Bush hysteria. Is he getting his sanity back?

[Tokhtamish]

It indeed has been noticed.

A major factor in all the political setbacks the European Union cause has suffered lately (the rejection of the euro by British, Danish, and Swedish voters, the fact that the constitution is dead in the water) is pervasive distrust of France throughout Europe.

[Prodigal Son]

we can't publish full length NYT Articles.

Since when?

[rrrod]

valid point ..euro is as divided as always...going broke and will blame the US for their miserable failures..but i need to add germany as an enemy too...look at what they have been doing for the last few yrs...when france, germany and russia called for a military alliance against the US i think no more proof is needed for the us..there is a lot of german defenders that post here but they cannot deny the facts...comments welcome

[finnman69]

ummmm

yes we can