What happened to the cheese-eating surrender monkeys? Just over a
decade ago, the French, having refused to join the allied adventure in
Iraq, were the butt of every hawkish joke. (Remember ‘Freedom fries’? Oh
how we laughed.) Now, as America and Britain are beating a retreat from
the world stage, France has turned into the West’s most reliable
interventionist. Its President, the disaster-prone François Hollande,
rattles his sabre at any despot or war criminal who dares to stand in
the way of liberté, egalité, or fraternité.
American neoconservatives — the War Party in Washington — have turned Francophile as a result. ‘Vive la France!’
tweeted Senator John McCain, America’s most insatiable hawk, after the
French tried (unsuccessfully in the end) to scupper the deal between the
world’s leading powers and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear development
programme. ‘Thank God for France,’ added Senator Lindsey Graham, another
arch-neocon, ‘The French are becoming very good leaders in the Mid
East.’ One contributor to the right-wing American magazine the National Review suggested that President Hollande should run for the White House in 2016.
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