Dassault's Rafale Is "Too French" to Be Sold

In a comment in which everythig French (from state companies to foreign policy) is lauded to the skies (and where it turns out oil sales are good if the buyers are French), one of our readers (make that one of our Pavlovian detractors, rather) contends that French companies are nothing less than "the best on the planet." (And they say that patriotic discourse — and patriotic indoctrination — is no longer something that exists in rational, avant-gardist France…) (My answer here, by the way.)

If Dominique Gallois and Laurent Zecchini are to be believed, however, Dassault can't sell its Rafale jet fighter. Why? Expect the usual comments about dastardly Yankee (or Anglo-Saxon) deeds. Le Monde goes into that, too, needless to say (viz. the Brits), however the paper has another explanation: They can't sell it because it is "expensive and very… French."