What Chirac & Co. Were Hoping For in a Kerry Presidency

This Amir Taheri column is a few weeks old, but still…

The European elites [spent much time] dreaming about how a President Kerry would ratify the Kyoto accords, sign on to the International Criminal Court, cut and run in Iraq, send flowers to Yasser Arafat and, perhaps, open a dialogue with Osama bin Laden. When it became clear that the American voters wanted none of that, the chattering classes in Europe were left speechless.

…Within the European Union only France, Belgium and Greece had been active on the anti-American front, at least until [the] election. All three governments had made a strategic choice of systematically opposing Bush policies in the hope that a Kerry administration would adopt substantial parts of their foreign policies. … The second Bush administration should give them a chance to prove that they have changed course.

… Chirac should be invited to review his policies on a range of other issues, including Iran's nuclear ambitions. A good part of Tehran's current defiant stance on the issue of uranium enrichment is based on the assumption that Chirac will sabotage any U.S. attempt at taking the issue to the Security Council.

The Islamic Republic is not the only member of the "Axis of Evil" to have played the Europeans against America. Syria, too, has counted on support from Paris to escape punishment for its illegal military presence in Lebanon.

(A belated thank you to Gregory)