The French Way of Caricaturing American Policies and Positions

While some French readers have made smug comments about French courage versus American treachery (plus ça change…), it turns out that both George W Bush and Condi Rice spoke up about the crisis, albeit belatedly, in ways that no French leader has.

Indeed, according to the Transatlantic Intelligencer, this (the Gallic self-praise versus Yankee damnation that leads to that type of smug comments) is only French society's and the French media's usual way of doing business:

Note that the French press is making much of the fact that a State Department spokesperson, Justin Higgins, is supposed to have made similar “freedom, but” remarks, even going so far as to describe the cartoons as “incitation to religious and ethnic hatred” – an assessment, incidentally, that none of us can either confirm or reject without precisely seeing them. These alleged remarks by Mr. Higgins – similar remarks are attributed in an AP story to State Department spokesperson Janelle Hironimus – have been stylized by both Le Figaro and Le Nouvel Observateur into the official position of the United States as such. (Thus Le Nouvel Obs: “The United States has condemned the publication of the controversial caricatures… as an ‘unacceptable’ incitation to religious or ethnic hatred.”)

Pointing out that Justin Higgins is just one press officer among (many) others, John Rosenthal notes how un-English the words attributed to the entire State Department, to the entire U.S. government, to the entire American nation sound.

Indeed, if anyone should be attacked for cowardice or treachery, it should be the EU…

In addition, the cowardly Bush has not set aside his trip to Pakistan and thanks to John Vinocur and Dan Bilefsky, we know that Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has set the blame squarely where it belongs:

Rasmussen argued that the cartoon crisis had been hijacked by Middle East countries that were using the caricatures for domestic ends … the crisis … was more about attempts by Iran and Syria to cause diversions in the Middle East than 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper. … "I have never doubted that Bush would stand up for Denmark," Rasmussen said. "He values faithfulness and loyalty. I was not surprised he decided to call me and express support."

Update: The French have produced some rather well-argumented defences of free speech, coupled with denunciations of Muslim double standards. Unfortunately, the anti-Americanism is never far away.

A French Imam defends Denmark while taking a dig at the United States. In Oliver Roy's piece, you can also read the digs at Uncle Sam between the lines, notably where he bewails Europe's having to take responsability in Afghanistan, etc.

Meanwhile, Le Monde's Francis Cornu celebrates Al Jazeera, while Alain Salles suggests that reviews that aren't favorable to BHL's American Vertigo must be lacking in seriousness and lets BHL's assertion that someone who doesn't like his book can be nothing but a French-hating populist stand.