[Rummyfan]

Steyn Alert!

[camle]

"France is no euroweenie"

not by european standards.

[samtheman]

the EU must not develop into a military superpower

I was rolling on the floor laughing my ass off when I read that line.

That's like Mike Tyson vowing not to develop his own version of a Grand Unification Theory in physics.

Nothing like focusing on your absolute ineptitude and calling it self-restraint!

[twyn1]

Interesting insight -- France as the ambitious, yet sneaky, wanna-be super-power, hmmmmm....(I don't remember hearing about the blown-up Greenpeace boat -- have to admit I snickered a little bit at that part)

[ken5050]

Chris Hitchens was on Hardball last night....he flat out said that Chirac was paid off by Saddam..he said that the only reason he ran again was to avoid being indicted.....it'll be very interesting to see what records come out of Bagdad after the US occupies it.....Bush might get to bag a few frogs

[dogbyte12]

Cheese eating surrender monkey bump.

[smith288]

No..they are a bunch of cheese eating surrender monkyes!

They are mettling with the Ivory Coast without proper UN permission...

Hypocrites to the extreme and not to mention their cheese smells like crap.

[headsonpikes]

France is the ancient enemy.

Nothing changes. 'Plus ca change' and etc.

[PokeyJoe]

I want to know why Americans call it a "wee wee"?

[dead]

Ivory Coast is nominally a sovereign state. The French have no more right to treat it as a colony than the British have to treat Iraq as a colony. But they do. And they don't care what you think about it.

Angry demonstrators … Protesting in front of the US Embassy in Abidjan, Ivory Coast residents demonstrated against a French peace deal ratified earlier this month. Many held placards saying ‘Down with France, long live the US’ and ‘No more French, from now on we speak English’. Photo: AFP

[dead]

Interesting insight from Steyn.

I am so naturally inclined to laugh and mock France, the prospect of actually recognizing them as a legitimate threat is a bit hard to get my brain around.

But he's right. Iraq. Then North Korea. Then France.

[Richard Kimball]

the new Single French Joke has been that they're "cheese-eating surrender monkeys," a phrase introduced on The Simpsons but greatly popularized by Jonah Goldberg of National Review

I disagree with other points of the article, but this jumped out at me. Anybody who thinks Jonah Goldberg has more influence on pop culture than the Simpsons needs to get out more."

"Doh!"

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...chocolate."

"Ididntdoitnobodysawmedoityoucantproveanything."

Quick how many one liners can you think of from Jonah Goldberg? Not to discount Mr. Goldberg, but the Simpsons reaches the masses.

[Richard Kimball]

Another reason this guy needs to get out more is that he thinks there's only one French joke.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

A great piece. Thanks for posting it.

[Pokey78]

Pinging the Steyn list.

[yendu bwam]

The issue for the French is very straightforward: What's in it for us?

That's it, in a nutshell. I think we all now truly know that the French are not an ally. In the future, other nations will be far more deserving of our limited aid and help in times of trouble.

[Siobhan]

But through it all France is admirably upfront in its unilateralism: It reserves the right to treat French Africa as its colonies, Middle Eastern dictators as its clients, the European Union as a Greater France and the UN as a kind of global condom to prevent the spread of Americanization. All this it does shamelessly and relatively effectively. It's time the rest of the West was so clear-sighted.

BUMP

[colorado tanker]

Steyn nails it again.

[Stultis]

There are many idiotic incoherent leaders in the world, several of them francophone (hint)

Is he refering to Canada's PM?

[knighthawk]

Ping

[Burkeman1]

I wouuld say Steyn has hit the nail on the head. Except for the last part about French "machinations" screwing up the last Gulf War. It wasn't a plot. The coalition Bush I put together included almost every ME state. And their conditions to being part of the coalition were that Kuwait only was to be liberated and that Sadaam stayed. France had nothing to do with it (though I am sure they wanted that outcome as well.)

But Steyn touches on something here. Why would France and Germany want to help America dominate the Middle East? States act in their own best interest. Steyn slipped up. He said if Iraq messed with France they would be a cinder the next day. Well- it seems France and Germany both seem to think that Iraq is no threat to them at all. But we do? Or do we really? Or is Sadaam a convenient boogeyman that we can topple and occupy a strategic country in the ME for future wars or muscle flexing?

9/11, WMD's, Sadaam is a bad guy- that is why we are going in? The men around Bush were calling for Sadaam's head before 9/11.

The French are acting in their best interest. And we are acting in what we see as our best interest (as an empire.) But it certainly has nothing to do with morality or spreading freedom (that is an afterthought.) I have no doubt that Iraqis will be dancing in the streets once Amrican troops take Bagdhad and Sadaam in dead or living Somalia with General Adid. So too did the Kuwaitis. But once Sadaam is gone so too is the identity of being an "Iraqi" and that is where the problems will start.