Thursday, March 13, 2008

No More ‘Magic’?

L’esprit Gallic comes in a $35B shoe size

Seems that only a few days after the US Department of Defense announced a deal to buy the [European] Airbus mid-air refueling tanker—over the [US] Boeing offering—the French Foreign Minister, Mssr. Bernard Kouchner, is determined to queer the deal.

In an interview about his concept of the ‘new’ [Note: What a misnomer....] diplomacy he said....

Asked whether the United States could repair the damage it has suffered to its reputation during the Bush presidency and especially since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Kouchner replied, “It will never be as it was before.”

“I think the magic is over,” he continued, in what amounted to a sober assessment from one of the strongest supporters in France of the United States.

If he’s supposed to be of the ‘strongest supporters’, I’m a member of Densa. This is just the sameo-sameo for the French. There is nothing ‘new’ here, except the speaker and the signage behind him. The French have always been and, apparently, always will be for themselves first and everyone else can go to blazes. As a case in point, I will remind the reader that up until the French realized that Iran could very well have a nuclear weapon in the near future, they were adamantly opposed to doing anything to stop that weapons program. Now that they see the truth of the matter, they finally decided that maybe....just MAYBE....US is right about Iran. And maybe Iran might give such a device to some of those ‘youths’ who’ve been burning cars and shooting police in and around their beloved Paris. Oops!

In truth, all the good foreign minister of France is doing is practicing the usual spirit of the Galls. And, as usual, it tends to be bilious. I’m reminded of the famous axiom....

Never give money to a bad debtor. He will despise you

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I would hope that the recently inked defense contract over the purchase of $35 billion in aircraft is revocable. This will give the good foreign minister of France something to ‘chew on’, i.e., foot in mouth.