Isabelle Bonhomme, a high-school teacher at the Lycée Saint-Louis in Paris, said her students had a "very simplified idea" of America.
"They have a vision of an America that believes it knows the truth and that tries to impose it on others," she said.
Americans "are people who need oil because of the way their economy works and thus they started the war in Iraq," she said, summarizing her students' views.
"There is a sort of consensus on this," Bonhomme said. "I've never had a student say, 'No, it's not true, Americans are not like that.'" …
Most French high school history textbooks are skimpy on the details of D-Day. They tend to focus closely on the challenges and dilemmas of living in occupied France. In a leading text, the Normandy invasion is described in just two paragraphs.
"On the Normandy coast, the Anglo-Saxons led operation Overlord," says the history text, "The World from 1939 to the Present Day," used by many students in their final year of high school.
The text notes the number of ships involved and concludes: "Surprised by the choice of location for the attack and dominated in the air, the Germans were not able to repel into the sea the Americans, Canadians and British who established three beachheads."
This matter-of-fact description seems to assume that students already know about D-Day; the book does not mention that it was history's largest amphibious military operation.
Behind the Façades in France: What expats and the mainstream media (French and American alike) fail to notice (or fail to tell you) about French attitudes, principles, values, and official positions…
Saturday, June 05, 2004
D-Day Softens Few Anti-U.S. hearts
Friday, June 04, 2004
"Not a single American flag in Paris"
She is énervée. Here, the girl (an apolitical cynic who is not particularly pro- or anti-American or pro- or anti-anything-at-all) explains why.
There is not a single American flag in Paris.
Not on the Champs-Élysées, not anywhere.
I don't care what the French think of Bush's policies. The minimum of respect would have been to put out the Stars and Stripes for the US president's arrival. It is not Bush who is arriving, it is the president of the United States.
The Champs-Élysées are filled with flags when any other leader arrives, no matter what their régimes' policies or what their leaders have done. They even turned the Eiffel Tower red…
But… the French they dare to resist the United States. Quel courage!
| I always knew they were |
Je me doutais bien qu'ils étaient des lopettes |
| |
| 'Four French hostages to be released from Guantanamo' | 'Guantanamo : Quatre otages français bientôt libérés' |
| You read that right. Le Figaro calls them 'hostages'. Rip them to shreds. Thanks to Matthieu.
| Vous avez bien lu le titre. Le Figaro les appelle des 'otages'. Mettez-les en bouillie. Merci à Matthieu.
|
Increasing "dislike" of "the American occupation" has led to "a rapid increase in the number of attacks on American soldiers"
In the meantime, France's fears turn out to be correct: George W Bush continues to make parallels between the intervention in Iraq and World War II. Dieu merci, we have defense minister Michèle Alliot-Marie to set things straight: "Parallels are always difficult to make, even dangerous, when one is in circumstances that are completely different". (How lucky that the world has the French élite to put it on the right path.)
But an article in the New York Times seems to confirm the French people's legendary lucidité:
The … attitude toward the American occupation forces has swung from apathy and surface friendliness to active dislike. According to a military government official, this is finding expression in the organization of numerous local anti-American organizations … and in a rapid increase in the number of attacks on American soldiers. There were more such attacks in the first week of October than in the preceding five months of the occupation, this source declared.I mean, what else do you need as proof that the invasion was a grave mistake? snorts David Kaspar on his Medienkritik.
Let's get out of here, asap.
Out of Germany, that is.
Germany?
Read the rest on David's Medienkritik
Lire la version française
Thursday, June 03, 2004
No news from Iraq's other 8,000 towns and villages, nothing from Kurdistan, where complete peace prevails…
What monopolises the headlines and prime time television at the moment is news from Iraq on the activity of small, localised minorities struggling to entrench themselves before full peace is imposed and an effective state structure is restored. The news is, in fact, very repetitive: disorder in Najaf and Fallujah, misbehaviour by a tiny handful of US Army reservists — not properly trained regular soldiers — in one prison. There is nothing from Iraq's other 8,000 towns and villages, nothing from Kurdistan, where complete peace prevails, very little from Basra, where British forces are on good terms with the residents.
(Merci, Eursoc)
| Use it like Charmin | S'en servir comme PQ |
| It's time to put the Geneva Conventions in the circular file.
| Il est temps de ranger les conventions de Genève au vertical.
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| He was cured all right | Pour être guéri, il l'était |
| '... I would like to have tolchocked them both harder and ripped them to ribbons on their own floor.' Rip Them to Shreds. Some drawings of Willem were cut up real good at an exhibit in Chaumont. Of course, French indignation is expressed that such a thing can happen to an fartist who is anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist, and anti-American and benefits from the support of the Saddamites at | '... je regrettais de ne pas avoir toltchocké plus fort ces deux-là et de ne pas en avoir fait de la charpie sur leur foutu plancher.' Tailladez-les en lambeaux. Des dessins de Willem étaient lacérés à une exposition à Chaumont. Naturellement, les franchouilles sont outrés devant ces actes gratuits contre un zartiste antisémite, pro-terroriste, et anti-américain et qui bénéficie d'un soutien sans faille de la part des Saddamites chez |
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The "Irresponsible" President of the "Country Where Everything Is Built on the Dollar" Is the "Chief Culprit of the War"
Evoking America’s “historically unique and shameless ill treatment of truth and of right” as well as "a country where everything is built on the dollar", a European head of state added that the “so-called” president was “guilty of a series of the worst crimes against international law”and that "first, he incites war, then falsifies the causes, then odiously wraps himself in a cloak of Christian hypocrisy, and slowly but surely leads mankind to war, not without calling God to witness the honesty of his attack."
But a question arises. Who were the courageous politicians making those stirring statements?…
Read more at www.eriksvane.com
| Every war with fascism is our business | Toute guerre contre le fascisme nous concerne directement |
| Tell it to the French who think it's good for them but not for others. Kill faster. Total war.
| Il faut le dire aux franchouilles qui trouve que c'est bon pour eux mais pas pour les autres. Tuer plus vite. Guerre totale.
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Blog Bits
Jews Rounded Up at Roland Garros? Amélie Mauresmo, the last French contender at the French Open was soundly defeated 6-4, 6-3 by the Russian Elena Dementieva, prompting the Belgian Website Tribal to comment that "French hopes [have been] crushed." This may not be the only reason for dismay (and that's putting it mildly) at Roland Garros. The Jerusalem Post's Mike Lebowitz reports that "the revered home of the French Open near Paris is said to have been a holding facility for French Jews before they were moved eastward to the Nazi concentration camps." French resistance appeals for D-Day recognition The AFP reports that "veterans of the French resistance are still pushing for full recognition of their role in ensuring that D-Day and its aftermath were an overwhelming success." However, says the AFP, according to British journalist and military historian Max Hastings, 'Neither the Germans nor SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters of Allied Expeditionary Forces) had ever taken the French resistance entirely seriously, regarding it as a nuisance force rather than as a central feature of Allied planning.'" Raffarin Warns Mamère on Gay Weddings According to a day's end roundup of news by the Associated Press, PM Raffarin warned Noël Mamère that he would incur "the sanctions provided for by the law" if he officiates an homosexual marriage in the town hall of Bègles (Gironde) on Saturday. This looks to get funny, very fast. | It'd be an awful shame if something were to happen to...
In the same news roundup, the AP also reports that Nicholas Sarkozy, who has announced his intentions to run for the premiership, has expressed his desire for the ruling UMP to "own up to" defeat, should it happen, in the European elections of June 13. "I am one of those who feel that one owns up to a failure, especially if one is leader," he said at a joint press conference with former prime minister Alain Juppé. Raffarin often calls himself "leader of the majority." France to send more troops to Afghanistan The AFP reports that France has announced it will send another 3,000 troops to Afghanistan starting next August, at which point general Henri Bentégeat will assume overall control of Nato's International Security Assistance Force, a considerable addition to 5,500 currently serving as part of the force. General Bentégeat is also the man who has repeatedly claimed that either ISAF men or French troops have come close to catching to catching bin Laden. Bentégeat's claims and the sudden increase in troop levels might lead one to speculate that either he or France hopes to catch bin Laden (and if the guy's actually alive, I'll eat my shoe) in order to reshape diplomatic relations with the US. How might they feel vindicated in having resisted our entreaties to make war in Iraq while catching the man who harmed us so grievously. Just a thought... Let's also bear in mind that Bentégeat personally awarded a medal to Anatolii Kvashnin, architect of the Russian genocide in Chechnya. Air France to Fly 100 US WWII Vets to France for Ceremonies PR Newswire: Air France has a reserved a flight to-day to fly 100 American World War II veterans and their wives to France from DC so that they can participate in the D-Day commemorations in Paris and Normandy. Prior to the flight, a reception will be held for the passengers at French Embassy in Washington. On board, there will be specially prepared meals, custom in-flight films about the D-Day landing. Passengers will receive custom-designed hats and certificates marking the flight. Once in France, they will receive the Legion of Honor from Defense minister Michèle Alliot-Marie and in Normandy they will receive the insignia of the Legion of Honor from president Chirac. Air France is also extending the period for reduced fares for all other veterans. (Only $704 from LA!!) Congressional Delegation to Travel to France A group of "at least 20" US lawmakers will lay a wreath at the American cemetery in Cambridge before traveling to Sainte-Mère Eglise (visit that link!) to witness a reenactment of the air-drop that began the landings. On Sunday, they travel to the ceremony at Omaha Beach for the larger ceremonies with presidents Bush and Chirac. |
If he had any...
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that Bush is "not angry" with France and that, in an interview to be published to-morrow in Paris-Match, the President says he was "never angry with France." He goes on to say, "I made a difficult decision and not everyone agreed with this decision (to make war in Iraq, — Ed.). But I understand this. To-day, it is time to work together and to promote the values in which we believe. Human rights, human dignity and the rule of law, of freedom and justice." Bush also says that Omaha Beach (Vierville-sur-mer, Saint-Laurent, Colleville) "is the very symbol of the work accomplished together in the name of the values that unite us. This is an interesting time in history to travel to Omaha."
Asked if Chirac will be invited to the Crawford ranch, Bush replied, "If he wants to come see the cows, he's welcome. He can come see the cows."
I am no fan of Bush but I think he's been instructed to behave as a perfect gentleman and has acquitted himself admirably, at least from what I can tell of that interview. We'll see more of it to-morrow, I guess.
Meanwhile, high-ranking officials at the Elysée palace have been instructed to discuss with the press how Chirac plans to participate in the ceremonies while holding his nose in Bush's presence. Yesterday, Le Monde's Claire Tréan reported
[...] the guest of honor will be George Bush, who is to deliver an address on Sunday morning, after Jacques Chirac, at the American cemetery of Colleville.Continue reading "If he had any..."
As the representative of the United States, it is George Bush who will receive the tributes paid to the "soldiers of freedom" of the Second World War. In France, this has not gone without provoking some grinding of teeth, scathing remarks on what is the "June 6 Paradox," according to Laurent Fabius, for whom Mr. Bush is "the exact opposite of the values that make us like America," and planned demonstrations.
Was it absolutely necessary to offer this platform to Mr. Bush, who doesn't hesitate to compare the fight for Europe's freedom and the current intervention in Iraq? Among Jacque Chirac's staff, the question is dodged: if the context of this ceremony is difficult for any one, it's George Bush! "He can't venture too far in historical comparison, else it might come back to bite him. Reality speaks for itself," they say at the Elysée Palace, implying that the photos from Abu Ghraib do not juxtapose well with the image of the heroes of D-Day.
[...]
"Democracy cannot be exported in armored vehicles," it is said dryly among Jacques Chirac's staff, who for months have been trying to explain to American officials that their "Greater Middle East" does not exist, that seeking to apply a global policy to countries that have only Islam in common is to bolster the idea of a clash of civilizations, that Europe didn't need American neo-conservatives to devote millions of euros to a mediterranean initiative conceived of in a spirit of dialogue and that Europe does not intend see itself dispossessed of this long-term effort in favor an American electoral slogan.
Life of Nameless Man Thrown Away
A homeless man was kicked and punched to death Tuesday evening by three men, in Montreuil-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis). The homeless man, somewhere between 40 and 50 years of age, was killed on a pétanque field where he lived, according to the preliminary findings of an investigation.Not exactly an international incident but such cases are increasingly common in France and it's a subject I find particularly moving and upsetting.
His body was found toward 11 PM on the field, hidden behind a garbage can, his face swollen, thanks to a witness who alerted the police, allowing the arrest of the three men, aged 17, 20 and 21. According to police, the witness saw the three men violently accost their victim. One of the alleged aggressors had traces of blood on his basketball shoes. They have been detained at the local office of the judicial police who have been assigned to the case.
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Just Whose Liberation Was Begun on June 6?
On a historical scale that includes genocide, talk of Germany's liberation mandates caution. Former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt reached for it a few weeks ago.On a somewhat unrelated note, one sentence in particular seemed of interest with regards to the Iraq situation:
"Eisenhower would never have thought of it as a liberation," he said. Very clear and precise at 85, Schmidt sat in his office in Hamburg and recalled how he, as a 27-year-old anti-aircraft lieutenant back then, certainly did not feel liberated. Among Germans, it was those in jails and concentration camps who did. …
Seen in the abstract, the factions' tactics and strategic goals appeared identical: Germany's lumping itself in with the world's victims in order to rejoin the world's just.
… it took 10 years from the time of the Nazi surrender for the new Federal Republic of Germany to operate with full sovereignty.Why, then, all the hurry and the (French and German) pressure to transfer full sovereignty to Baghdad as quickly as possible? Didn't Germany turn out as a success story in spite of the 10-year delay?
Spain's Newfound Respectability
Spain's exclusion from a new European accord on terrorism brought sharp criticism of the new Socialist government … with opposition leaders calling it an embarrassing snub for a country struck by terrorist bombings less than three months agoa Reuters piece states in the International Herald Tribune (no link).
Ministers of Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Luxembourg agreed … in Brussels to the principles of the accord, which spells out new ways to intensify the fight against terrorism and other crimes by sharing DNA profiles, fingerprints and personal data on suspects. …Nor is it the el caniche de Chiraque's policy to criticize the Ivory Coast. And Sudan. And Somalia. And Iran. And North Korea. Etc…
But Spain, which lost 191 people in the March 11 bombings blamed on Islamic terrorists, was not among the initial signatories. … Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero … dodged the issue when asked about it at a news conference.
[El afrancesado] said it was not his policy to criticize other EU members …
But Uncle Sam? And America's allies?
Oh. That's a different historia altogether.
(When the American flag passed by during last October's Columbus Day military parade, Zap made a point of sitting down, saying "It's not my flag".)
A month ago, John Vinocur wrote in the IHT that Bambi had gotten mostly nothing from returning Spain to the EU rank and file. Seems like his lucky streak is continuing…
Meanwhile, the last word belongs to Jaime Mayor Oreja, who effectively turned the Socialists' charge of "lying" on its head. "If this is what returning to Europe is," the Popular Party's leading candidate in the European Parliament elections said, "it is a fraud and a lie."
Besides Normandy, There Is a Second 60th Anniversary… in Iraq
It's refreshing to learn that the French don't appreciate the analogy. Might it be that there are people, American and otherwise, who do not appreciate the practice that has become a habit in France, to compare Bush to Hitler, to compare the U.S. army to the Nazis, to compare Saddam Hussein's Iraq to 1939 Poland (and no, not because those persons are particularly enamored of Dubya ; no, because they find, from an objective viewpoint, those comparisons ever so slightly exagerrated, self-serving (to those making the comparisons), scornful, and, from a historical point of view, completely false).
In this article, which turns out to be another complete apology for the French government (not a single quote which is not from "a member of Jacques Chirac's inner circle" or from a member of the Paris élite or which is not supposed to show Americans in an ironic light), Claire Tréan asks the following question (while repeating the previous expression so that the wording cannot be mistaken): "Should we have gone so far and offered this platform to Mr. Bush, who does not shrink from making an analogy between the fight for freedom in Europe that the Normandy battle was and the current intervention in Iraq?"
So let there be no doubts. It's without a single shadow of a doubt that the Normandy battle does represent the fight for freedom (no disagreement, there; au contraire) just as much as it is without a single shadow of a doubt that the the current intervention in Iraq does not represent the fight for freedom. Here, frankly, I would like to make up my own mind, but Claire Tréan, the Monde editors, and the rest of France's élite will not allow me to do so. According to the question, another thing is also clear: democracy is only viable if it is not given to Yankees of the type represented by W. The only thing that must stand out is the self-serving point of view of the self-proclaimed humanists of Europe.
In another article, on its front page, Le Monde presents the "paradox of June 6". And the newspaper quotes Laurent Fabius at the University of Chicago (where the presidential hopeful serves as a visiting senior lecturer) : Arriving in France for the 60th anniversary of the Normandy landings, George W Bush "will be received correctly in his capacity as president representing the brave men who died for freedom, but he will be considered as the exact opposite of the values which cause us to love America ". (The German ambassador, who was in the audience, added that has "very happy" to hear what he had just heard.)
Ah, you've recognized it, right? Europeans' legendary subtlety and modesty, right? These are the people who like nothing better than to sound off against Washington's so-called arrogance. But don't ever dream of speaking of arrogance in a case involving Europeans thus castigating a president and, through him, an entire people (since Dubya remains high in the polls, the remark touches, directly or otherwise, all those who, in America, support him, even if only partly so).
All these opinions are without appeal. Let noone make the mistake of comparing the Ba'aasist régime with that of the Nazis. Let noone make the mistake of comparing the fall of the Third Reich with that of the Iraqi butcher. Let no one make the mistake of comparing Adolf Hitler with Saddam Hussein! To compare the Führer with George Bush, that, yes, sure, go ahead — but with Saddam, don't be ridiculous. The Europeans' viewpoint is of a remarkable clarity, don't you think? And with that legendary lucidité of theirs! …
I am currently reading a book by an author variously described as "our greatest modern military historian" and "the most readable and most original of living military historians". In The Iraq War, John Keegan does not only describe the military operations from March to April 2003, but gives the context and background of the Iraq conflict, from the history of Mesopotamia to the historic break between Sunnis and Shi'ites, from the fall of the Ottoman empire to the contemporary rivalries. What caught my attention (and what, if truth be told, got a flame of anger burning inside me) was the information on the last page of chapter 3 relating to the origin of the Ba'ath party.
Speaking of Saddam Hussein : "The nature of his régime owed more to twentieth-century ideologies of intolerance and systems of repression than to anything derived from the more distant past."Let us remember the Iraqi citizens quoted in Steven Vincent's Reason article: "European and Arab journalists talk to us, but they don’t care about our happiness in being liberated. They only want us to make anti-American comments." One lone, isolated article appeared in Le Monde in March, which put the lie to the initiatives of Paris and the rest of the peace camp of the past 20 months, but it is the the type of which the French press is content to keep from us although it gives an understanding of the Middle East. To return to the Normandy beaches, here's another article which gives a message that is just as isolated from the maddening crowds' anti-Americanism: "Freedom is something you need to be deprived of to understand what it means".
Speaking of Saddam's Ba'ath party: "Michel Aflaq, the founder of Ba'athism, had modelled the organization of his party on Hitler's Nazi movement, of which he was an admirer."
As Winston Churchill once said: "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.".
So go ahead, Claire Tréan, tell us again. We need to hear it one more time. "We do not care too much for the analogy that Bush has been making between the fight for freedom in Europe and the intervention in Iraq." And you, Laurent Fabius, come on, let's hear more about the people who fought the Ba'ath party having totally different values than those who fought the Nazis. You self-declared specialists on fascism and neo-fascism, we can't wait to hear your self-serving voices sound off again.
Lire la version française
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
In Algiers, a tragic end to Jamel Talib's golden dream
He rushed through security into courtyard of the Tahar-Djaout press building. A safe place at the heart of the capital; most Algerian dailies have their offices there. Nothing might have hinted at his intentions save the fact that he appeared to be soaked. Before the chattering reporters, he lit a cigarette lighter. His clothes, soused in gasoline, instantly burst into flames. Transformed into a torch, the man ran ten meters. His screaming, the smell, the smoke... When at last an extinguisher was found and emptied on him, Jamel Talib was still alive. He was even conscious. Spread out on the ground, his arms in a cross, he complained and begged loudly that his messaged be relayed. He spoke of injustice, of hogra ("contempt"), of sacrifice and of an investigating magistrate who was responsible, he said, for his misery. He interspersed his sentences with "O, my God," "Long live Algeria" and "Down with corruption..." He died Friday, May 21, three days after being admitted to an Algiers hospital.
Though 15 reporters witnessed the scene, only those of El Watan bothered to look into the man's identity. Jamel Talib was just over 40 years old. A father of three children, he lived in Djelfa, 300 kilometers to the south of the capital. After two years of law studies, he had several lines of work: shop-keeper, martial arts trainer, taxi driver. In 1991, he acquired a plot of land and hoped to put a shopping center there. He gave it name: "Djelfa's golden dream." But the dream turned into a nightmare. Too many debts, scams and unscrupulous creditors. When Jamel Talib tried to negotiate, he bumped up against Algeria's open wound: "administrative terrorism," as he called it. In July 2002, his parcel of land was sold for a song by the bank to a powerful businessman. Jamel Talib spoke of fraud, wailed, demanding an investigation, and knocked on every door. On May 17, he left Djelfa for Algiers. The following day, Tuesday, he immolated himself.
Florence Beaugé
• PUBLISHED 01.06.04 IN THE EDITION
"Even if Saddam has these weapons, so what?"
The French simply didn’t consider Iraqi weapons of mass destruction a threat. It was an attitude that I would hear repeated again and again by French officials and politicians from all sides of the political debate. “Even if Saddam has these weapons, so what?” was the refrain. “He has never threatened France.”Friends of Saddam has a long excerpt from Kenneth Timmermann's The French Betrayal of America.
In April 2000, Indict [a non-profit organization partially funded by the U.S. Congress under the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998] had organized an international conference in Paris, to raise awareness in the French media of the horrendous human rights record of Saddam’s regime. They brought in victims of torture, who described in detail the methods used by Saddam’s eldest son Uday and the security services to punish suspected enemies. (One of Uday’s favorites was to plunge his victim into a vat of acid and listen to him scream as the acid burned off his skin). Indict had gathered testimony from survivors of the poison gas attacks on Kurdish villages, and had interviewed parents who had been forced to watch as their children were raped before their eyes. … The litany of horrors uncovered by Indict, compiled into evidence books against some two dozen top Baath Party members, was overwhelming. And it was systematically ignored by the most of the French press.