Reassurance From French Minister That Nothing But His Country's Principles Were at Work

"On July 5 I shall go to Washington", [French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on Sunday]. "I shall go first to say that for me Americans are friends, that we shall never forget what they have done, what we owe them.

"Sometimes we disagree. I am thinking above all of the Kyoto process (on climate change), or two years ago, our position on Iraq," he said.

"When you have a friend and you disagree you have to tell him."

A sound statement of principles, as it were, but only insofar as it is practiced with something looking somewhat like a fair, objective, and impartial manner, and not a product of self-serving double standards.

As it happens, France never bothers to tell Russia when it disagrees with its policies (in fact, it hardly disagrees with Moscow at all).

France never bothers to tell China when it disagrees with its policies (in fact, it hardly disagrees with Beijing at all).

France never bothers to tell Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, and Rwanda when it disagrees with their policies (in fact, it hardly disagrees with those African countries at all).

France never bothers to tell Iran when it disagrees with its policies (in fact, it hardly disagrees with Tehran at all).

France never bothers to tell the United Nations when it disagrees with its decisions (in fact, it hardly disagrees with any international bodies at all).

And, of course, France never bothered to tell Saddam Hussein when it disagreed with his policies (in fact, it hardly disagreed with Baghdad at all).

Unless, of course, the countries in question, or their governments, chose to pursue policies which Paris did not deem to be in line with its (economic) interests, never mind its self-proclaimed position as guardian of the planet's human rights…

With friends like this, Uncle Sam…