France and US learn to love each other again (The Observer)

(When did this happen? Talk about a "Flip-Flop!")

France and US learn to love each other again

Peter Beaumont says Britain is being supplanted as the key American ally in Europe

Sunday May 8, 2005
The Observer

It was not that long ago that the French mocked the 'special relationship' between Britain and its American ally as that of master and poodle. Now, in an unexpected reversal, France is claiming a remarkable global coup: of supplanting Britain in the closest counsels of the US to forge a new, distinctly Gallic 'rapport'.

Having been Washington's 'impossible friend' - blamed for blocking a second UN resolution over Iraq that would have explicitly authorised war - France is now claiming to have repositioned itself as America's indispensable partner in Europe. The claims of France's rapidly emerging influence follow last week's visit by French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier to Washington to meet Condoleezza Rice where, on first name terms, they dedicated themselves to 'confronting together the deepest problems of the globe'.

The visit was so successful that one gleeful French diplomat expressed the view to Libération that 'in the final reckoning, it is us who have won the place Tony Blair dreamed of after agreeing to the war in Iraq: that of Europe's privileged partner with the United States, capable of influencing its decisions.' It is a claim greeted by British officials with the grinding of teeth and not a little laughter.

The Franco-US love-in follows two years of culture wars between the two allies in America's War of Independence from Britain that have seen an avalanche of prose, some vulgar, some learned, exploring the roots of their mutual distaste. The most recent contribution is Philippe Roger's scholarly The American Enemy: The History of French Anti-Americanism which joins tomes like Richard Z. Chesnoff's The Arrogance of the French: Why They Can't Stand Us - and Why the Feeling is Mutual. Indeed, such was the antipathy at one stage around the time of the Iraq war that American consumers essayed their own unilateral boycott of all things French - the most infamous being when French fries became Freedom fries.

(more at link above)

The visit was so successful that one gleeful French diplomat expressed the view to Libération that 'in the final reckoning, it is us who have won the place Tony Blair dreamed of after agreeing to the war in Iraq: that of Europe's privileged partner with the United States, capable of influencing its decisions.' It is a claim greeted by British officials with the grinding of teeth and not a little laughter.

By standing up and fighting back, rather than giving in, the French are in a stronger position than the British, who gave in and kissed Bush's ass.

I think Britain should further integrate with the rest of Europe instead of being dragged into Bush's further wars.

Is there enough soap in the world to wash away that taste? I suppose it's an acquired taste that most politicians eventually grow fond of...the taste of victory, betrayal, relative ethics, and rotting innocent flesh....


....but Chirac is no French poodle.

...would a French diplomat really make a statement as juvenile and ridiculous as the one stated above?