Tuesday, July 13, 2004

The French Resistance to Helping in Afghanistan and Iraq is Now Downright Dangerous

…with a flick of a hand, Chirac dismisses [Afghan president] Karzai — and, of course, the U.S.
writes Charles Krauthammer in the Time Magazine article Why the French Act Isn't Funny Anymore.
Before Sept. 11, France's Gaullist anti-Americanism as a form of ostentatious self-aggrandizement was an irritant. With a war on — three, in fact: Afghanistan, Iraq and the larger war on terrorism — France's willful obstructionism becomes dangerous and deadly. …

Why then is Chirac making things as difficult as he can for the U.S.?

It is not just pique. It is not just antipathy to George Bush. And it is not just France's traditional and reflexive policy of trying to rein in, cut down and domesticate the world's greatest superpower so that ultimately secondary powers like France could emerge as leaders of a multipolar world.

There is something far deeper going on here…

(Merci à Tom P)

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