Qui est Votre Papa ?

Jeffrey Gedmen reviews "Our Oldest Enemy", by John J. Miller and Mark Molesky in the WJS today reinforces my low opinion of our friend antagonist France.

Faux Amis

Antipathy between France and America is nothing new.

Ah, the French. How to think of them? There is an easy default answer: kindly and gratefully. After all, they helped us in the Revolutionary War, gave us Alexis de Tocqueville and the Statue of Liberty, and to this day feel a keen republican spirit in harmony with America's own. Sure, we have had our spats. But when the chips are down, you can count on France to be on our side, more or less, and to supply some great wine if it is needed.

That is certainly one point of view. It is also (except for the wine) nonsense, as John J. Miller and Mark Molesky argue in "Our Oldest Enemy." More than a few readers are likely to agree. Before 9/11, 77% of Americans held a favorable opinion of France. By March 2003, only 34% did.

That's quite a shift, and little wonder. In the weeks leading up to the Iraq war, when French support might have helped win the approval of the United Nations, the French poured contempt on the U.S. for its "unilateralism." In those crucial days Dominique de Villepin, the French foreign minister, scolded the U.S. with particular condescension, declaring that "nothing justifies envisaging military action." The chips were down, and France was most assuredly not on our side.

I would dispute the worth of French wine as well, as it comes at too high a price and has an acrid aftertaste of ashes. You might try this one instead...the 2001 reds from Northern California are stellar...but I digress.

It is positively amusing to hear John Kerry argue that George W. Bush single-handedly spoiled our relations with "Old Europe." The relations were never smooth in the first place. Even Benjamin Franklin, a celebrity in Paris when he later served as ambassador there, contended with the French, who "murder and scalp our farmers," as he put it, and claim "parts of the British territory as they find most convenient." In his time, Mark Twain bridled over French claims of superiority. "I can't describe to you," Twain wrote to a friend, "how poor & empty & offensive France is." FDR told Churchill in 1943 that de Gaulle had proved to be "unreliable, uncooperative, and disloyal to both governments." Truman would later call de Gaulle a "psychopath."

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Good luck to Mr. Kerry if he ever gets a chance to charm Old Europe.

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Let's face it: Paris is not Pyongyang. Not yet anyway. But the French make great villains, and Messrs. Miller and Molesky are essentially right. It's hard to make the case any longer that France is simply an annoying ally. Only the annoying part is reliably true.

Roget's: nuisance: noun
Definition: annoyance
Synonyms: bad egg, besetment, blister, bore, bother, botheration, botherment, bum, bummer, creep, drag, drip, exasperation, flat tire, foul ball, frump, gadfly, headache, holy terror, human mistake, inconvenience, infliction, insect, irritant, irritation, kibitzer, louse, nag, noodge, nudge, nudnick, offense, pain, pest, pester, pesterer, pill, plague, poor excuse, problem, problem child, prune, terror, trouble, vexation.

Heh.

Posted by feste at October 14, 2004 03:46 PM | TrackBack