Voice from the Commonwealth
Commentary, World Views and Occasional Rants from a small 'l' libertarian in Massachussetts

"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest for freedom, go home and leave us in peace. We seek not your council nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams
.

Wednesday, October 09, 2002

And so the circle is now complete. The French have gone back to calling our Iraq outlook simple.

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin Tuesday regretted the United States "simplistic vision" on the Iraqi crisis, reaffirming that the United Nations (UN) is the unique legitimate body to make decisions on this issue. "The young nations have the tendency to underestimate the history of old nations," Raffarin told the National Assembly at the start of a debate on Iraq. Raffarin said he wishes to remind "those who develop a simplistic vision of war of the good against the evil" of the danger that will be caused by a unilateral war to change the Iraqi regime.

Ah, yes the old age canard. Listen up Frenchy, our Constitution is older than yours by a long shot (not to mention that our people represent the history of every nation they have come from to escape nuanced rule). Unless you consider yourselves the direct governmental descendent of say the days when France was ruled by an Emperor. But then France would have to do everything the very old an nuanced Egyptians, Iraqis and Chinese say.

As for our 'simplistic' approach, we could remind Mr. Raffarin that the last few times the French played very nuanced we got Vichy France handing over their Jews before Hitler even asked (So simplistic protecting our Jews, eh?) or the bombing of Damascus when they held rallies to try and claim independence from the Protectorate system (giving them a lesson in nuance there?) Besides I consider our more 'simplistic' approach a good deal better than your we're an arrogant bucnh of asshole French people so listen to what we say. Last time I was in Egypt one of our guides (British) had this to say to a French group that was excessively rude to us. "you can ask us politely to quiet down or you can keep shushing us like a bunch of French people!" (it immedeately endeared him to the people in our group. In which there were only two simplisme Americans. Everyone else was British, Irish and Australian) I think this adequately covers this situation also.

"We must consider the use of force as a last resort when everything has been tried by way of dilpomacy," said Raffarin.

I guess we are discounting the last 12 years and calling a do over.

If you have something thoughtful to add, please do so, otherwise sit down and shut up.

< email | 10/09/2002 07:36:00 AM | link




<< Designed by Ryon



Western Civilization and Democracy Net Ring

The Western Civilization and Democracy Net Ring celebrates Western civilization and its universal values of individual freedom, political democracy and equal rights for all. All sites promoting human rights and democracy are welcome.

[Prev Site] [Stats] [Random] [Next 5 Sites] [List Sites] [Next Site]