Americans swamp French Embassy 'It never stopped, it was crazy,' said diplomat after 1,000 calls

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | 12 Feb. 03 | Staff Writer

[txradioguy]

France's resistance to U.S. policy on Iraq, capped off by its role in blocking U.S.-backed plans to bolster Turkish defenses against a possible Iraqi missile attack, is resulting in a massive outpouring of U.S. anger against France, evidenced by the 1,124 angry calls received by the French Embassy in Washington, D.C., in just one day.

Coming in the wake of Secretary of State Colin Powell's speech to the U.N. on Iraq, the embassy felt under siege, reports the Scotsman newspaper.

"It never stopped. It was crazy. Unbelievable," said one French diplomat.

Although the embassy's Nathalie Loiseau notes that some letters and e-mail are supportive of Paris' position, she admits in a Financial Times report that some "would like to boycott France and French products."

With some U.S. talk radio shows openly calling for repatriation of America's war dead, noted the Scotsman, the phrase "if it weren't for us you'd be speaking German" has become a popular refrain.

"The French attitude is self-defeating," says Gary Schmitt of the Project for a New American Century, said the report. "They are undermining the credibility of the U.N. and now throwing NATO into disarray. I don't know if they realize how they're also causing a split in Europe. If you total up all the things they are interested in, you find that they're making a hash of all of them."

Meanwhile, as WorldNetdaily reported this week, France was found to be more unpopular among Americans now than at any time in the past decade in a new Gallup poll. Unfavorable opinions of France have jumped 17 points in the past year while favorable opinions have dropped 20 points.

American attitudes toward Germany, another European power unwilling to support the U.S. on Iraq, also have become more negative, according to the annual Gallup Poll Social Series Update on World Affairs, conducted Feb. 3-6.

In its editorial yesterday the Washington Post argued that France and Germany now "behave as if they share the same over-riding goal as the Iraqi dictator: thwarting U.S. action even when it is supported by most other NATO and European nations."

Great Britain ranked at the top of the list of 26 nations with a +83 percent favorable rating, while Iraq rounded off the bottom with a -85 percent score. Iran and North Korea, the other two nations identified by President Bush as comprising the "axis of evil," joined Iraq at bottom of the list.

Bush 'disappointed'

The White House yesterday scoffed at Paris's offer to fortify U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq after President Bush complained he was "disappointed" with France's refusal to cooperate with NATO.

The Bush administration's exasperation with Paris is affecting public perception, reported the Financial Times, noting as an example the New York Post's coverage of the international dispute. The paper ran a picture of WWII American soldiers' graves near Omaha Beach Monday, headlined: "They died for France but France has forgotten."

New York Post reporter Steve Dunleavy, depicted near the grave of a young American soldier, wrote: "The air is chilled, but I feel an unnatural glow of rage -- I want to kick the collective butts of France. These kids died to save the French from a tyrant named Adolf Hitler. And now, as more American kids are poised to fight and die to save the world from an equally vile tyrant, Saddam Hussein, where are the French? Hiding. Chickening out. Proclaiming, Vive les wimps!"

Presidential press secretary Ari Fleischer said yesterday that French President Jacques Chirac hadn't mentioned France's intention to block Turkey's request for NATO assistance during his meeting last week with Bush. He claimed Bush didn't feel exactly "blindsided," but rather "disappointed at the "setback" for both NATO and Turkey.

Clinton administration deputy national security adviser Jim Steinberg says anti-French feeling is increasing in the U.S., according to the Financial Times. Concerned that it could get worse, Steinberg added: "The next two weeks are going to have a profound impact on transatlantic relations. There is a consensus that whatever the U.S. has done wrong, it does not justify the way the French and the Germans are playing this."

[Colorado Doug]

Bon Dieu, mes amis, ces Américains ne se rendent pas compte comment la France les a sauvés quand ils combattaient pour leur indépendance...

But that was over 200 years and several wars ago. America has more than paid that debt. Why are the Frence trying to undo us now? That is my question.

[Copperhead61]

Lafayette must be spinning in his grave at France's attitude. The Marquis truly loved the USA and even named his only son after George Washington.

[Taxbilly]

I wonder how many of you constant French bashing imbeciles have ever been to

I have and your people are the rudest I have ever met. In this humble imbeciles opinion.

[erk]

Does anyone have the full list? Or know where I can view it? I want to see where Israel and a number of other countries are.

Americans' Ratings of 26 Foreign Countries Feb. 3-6, 2003
(sorted by "Net Rating")	Favorable	Unfavorable	Net Rating (Favorable – Unfavorable)	Change in Net Rating From Last Year^
	%	%	%	%
Great Britain	89	6	83	0
Canada	89	7	82	-5
Italy	80	9	71	5
Spain	75	9	66	**
Japan	77	15	62	-1
Mexico	74	20	54	4
Germany	71	21	50	-22
Turkey	63	20	43	**
Russia	63	26	37	-2
Israel	64	29	35	12
Egypt	56	25	31	11
South Korea	58	31	27	6
France	59	33	26	-37
Kuwait	47	42	5	**
Vietnam	43	39	4	0
China	45	46	-1	4
Saudi Arabia	30	61	-31	6
Colombia	26	57	-31	1
Cuba	28	63	-35	-5
Pakistan	26	62	-36	-3
Afghanistan	25	66	-41	1
Libya	18	63	-45	8
The Palestinian Authority	13	73	-60	2
Iran	13	77	-64	9
North Korea	12	80	-68	-26
Iraq	5	90	-85	-3
^ Complete trend data displayed at the bottom of this article ** Country not rated last year

The major findings from a review of this year's results include the following:

• Fifteen of the 26 countries receive net positive ratings; i.e., the percentage of Americans giving them a favorable rating exceeds the percentage giving them an unfavorable rating.

• Americans are clearly most positive about two English-speaking countries: Great Britain and Canada, both of which receive net favorable ratings in the 80% range. (Australia, not included on the list this year, had a similarly high score in a 2001 survey.)

• Americans also give net favorable ratings of 50% or higher to five other countries: Italy, Spain, Japan, Mexico, and Germany.

• Germany is rated lower this year than it was last year. The drop is not as dramatic for Germany as it is for France. Americans' favorable attitudes toward Germany had averaged in the 70% range since 1991, although they dropped to 63% in June 1993 and reached a high point of 83% last February. This year, 71% of Americans have a favorable attitude toward Germany, while 21% have an unfavorable attitude.

• Turkey, Russia, Israel, Egypt, South Korea, and France comprise the next group of countries in the list. All of these receive significantly more favorable than unfavorable ratings from Americans, although not as favorable as the countries discussed above.

• As noted, there have been changes in the positioning of several of these countries in the minds of Americans since last year. Israel and Egypt get slightly more favorable ratings now than they did in 2002. Israel's net favorable rating has gone from 23% last year to 35% this year, while Egypt's net rating has increased from 20% to 31%.

• The image of France has undergone the most significant change of any of the countries tested. Americans have been asked about France using this format in six previous Gallup Polls, stretching back to 1991. Between 70% and 79% of Americans have reported favorable attitudes toward France in each of these prior surveys. Between 12% and 20% have reported unfavorable attitudes.

• This year, only 59% of Americans say they have a favorable attitude toward France, while 33% report a negative view. That's a substantial decline from last year, when 79% had a favorable view and 16% had an unfavorable view. The net favorable rating for France has thus dropped from 63% last year to its current reading of 26%.

• Kuwait, Vietnam, and China all have net ratings of about 0%; i.e., just about as many Americans rate them unfavorably as rate them favorably.

• A series of six countries have net ratings that are in the minus 30% to minus 50% range. These include Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Cuba, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Libya.

• Libya's and Saudi Arabia's images are slightly more positive this year than they were last year.

• Three countries have much more substantially unfavorable images among Americans: the Palestinian Authority, Iran, and North Korea.

• While attitudes toward North Korea have been strongly unfavorable in the three previous surveys that included North Korea, they have become much more so this year, with a reading of 12% favorable and 80% unfavorable. The net favorable rating of North Korea has moved from –42% last year to –68% this year.

• Finally, and not surprisingly, Iraq is the lowest rated of any of the 26 countries tested, with unfavorable ratings from 90% of Americans and favorable ratings from only 5%. This is not new. Iraq's image has been similarly negative in each of the 10 prior Gallup Polls in which it has been tested, going back to 1991.

Survey Methods

These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,001 adults, 18 years and older, conducted Feb. 3-6, 2003.

[bert]

ooops...... That's not a monkey. It's an orangatung.

[Gaelic]

The US govt didn't kill MLK. Thr French govt wanted the Papacy for power and control over Catholic kingdoms. You were the only white kid in that school? I bet you were a real peckerwood.You are defending the bete noir.

[maxwellp]

Yes, I'd like to see our American soldiers taken out of that sh-tty little country, France, and re-buried in the great United States of America. It's where they belong.

[RJL]

...the French helping us fight for our independence.

We thank the French for their help during our fight for independence.

We also realize that the biggest reason they helped us was to p*ss off their rivals, the English.

[faithincowboys]

But our urban leftists don't interfere in the foreign policy of France. Did are leftists protest France's vietnam war? Many on the left never forget the American war in
Indochina, but what the French did there and elsewhere is horrific and somehow they are treated like the champions for human rights. Ask Greenpeace? Not only that, many of the angry sons of Al Qaeda come from places where France colonized. Mr. Mossousai (sp) came from France (an algerian)
to kill us here, and he didn't have to read the mid-east fishwrap to learn to hate Israel and America--all he had to do was read Le Monde.

[Dec31,1999]

The French will not engage in war under any circumstances. Therefore we should walk into Paris tomorrow morning. Let's take the country before the Germans do. We won't even need soldiers- just beaurocrats to march into all government offices.

[Dec31,1999]

Let's do more than annoy the French. Let us call loudly for action which will remove our honored dead from France. Neither they or their sacrifices are appreciated and their remains would be best held here on the soil of their birth.

Well said.

[Capitalist Eric]

...entering into the U.S. Army Airborne next year...

Well, good for you.

Perhaps you'll learn something... Like the value of loyalty.

Too bad you're too young and stupid to know better, now...

But don't worry- the Army will turn you into a man, or you'll wash out, and be a perfect candidate for migration to the land of whine and cheese.

And as for actions speaking louder than words, the fact that the frenchies have mastered the diplomatic maneuvers of appeasement and surrender, are obviously lost on your uneducated mind. Or, when we went after Quadaffi in Libya, and they forbade our planes to fly over their airspace, necessitating far longer flights, multiple in-flight refuelings and the inability to support them when trouble arose...

Oh, yeah, they're our friends... They have active terrorist cells in their own country, they're being overrun by Arab immigration, and the crime rates are going up by astronomical numbers... Yet they pretend to not see what is plain.

As the President simply stated, "you're either with America or you're with the terrorists."

At this point, the actions of the French make overtly clear, their position:

They're with the terrorists.

If that doesn't sit with with you...? TOO BAD.

[VOA]

France was found to be more unpopular among Americans now than at any time in the past
decade in a new Gallup poll. Unfavorable opinions of France have jumped 17 points
in the past year while favorable opinions have dropped 20 points.

American attitudes toward Germany, another European power unwilling to support
the U.S. on Iraq, also have become more negative, according to the annual
Gallup Poll Social Series Update on World Affairs, conducted Feb. 3-6.

It's not that Americans think of France and Germany (at least their guvmints)
as "Old Europe".

At least I live under a Constitution with a First Amendment that allows me to
say what Rummy our SecDef was too polite to say:

"France and Germany? That's Senile Europe."

[Gaelic]

The Rhode Island National Guard can wupp French arse

[justshutupandtakeit]

Italian wines are much better than California for the same price. They are also made by friends not by the enemies who run the wineries in Cali.