Krauthammer Says He Dislikes France, Presses Continue Running
Charles “did you mean: french military defeats” Krauthammer has a new article out today. Apparently, the French, German, and Russians are against us, but that's OK because we're strong enough to go it alone. Who knew:
These countries were no help before the war, during the war or after the war. France tried to rally the world to stop the U.S. from deposing Saddam. Russia was sending night-vision goggles to Saddam. Not one lifted a finger to help the postwar reconstruction.
Some Americans are bitter about this, others merely confused. Democrats think it's our fault. They charge Bush with mishandling relations with the allies. Theirs is an etymological problem. Events have overtaken vocabulary. These countries are not allies. It is sheer laziness now that counts France and Germany as old allies, sheer naivete that counts Russia as a new one.
It should not surprise us. Countries have different interests. For a half-century, anticommunism papered over those differences, but communism is gone. Europe lives by Lord Palmerston's axiom: nations have no permanent allies, only permanent interests. Alliance with America is no longer a permanent interest. The postwar alliance that once structured and indeed defined our world is dead. It died in 2003.
He makes a good point. All too often, Americans think that countries like France oppose the US either out of cowardice or avarice. Quite the opposite - France's actions in the weeks leading up to Gulf War II were a bold power play for geopolitical prominence. Our former allies are not running for shelter as we charge headlong into the War on Terror. Rather, they are attempting to flank us – they thus hope to achieve tactical, and perhaps eventually strategic, advantages.
These countries were no help before the war, during the war or after the war. France tried to rally the world to stop the U.S. from deposing Saddam. Russia was sending night-vision goggles to Saddam. Not one lifted a finger to help the postwar reconstruction.
Some Americans are bitter about this, others merely confused. Democrats think it's our fault. They charge Bush with mishandling relations with the allies. Theirs is an etymological problem. Events have overtaken vocabulary. These countries are not allies. It is sheer laziness now that counts France and Germany as old allies, sheer naivete that counts Russia as a new one.
It should not surprise us. Countries have different interests. For a half-century, anticommunism papered over those differences, but communism is gone. Europe lives by Lord Palmerston's axiom: nations have no permanent allies, only permanent interests. Alliance with America is no longer a permanent interest. The postwar alliance that once structured and indeed defined our world is dead. It died in 2003.
He makes a good point. All too often, Americans think that countries like France oppose the US either out of cowardice or avarice. Quite the opposite - France's actions in the weeks leading up to Gulf War II were a bold power play for geopolitical prominence. Our former allies are not running for shelter as we charge headlong into the War on Terror. Rather, they are attempting to flank us – they thus hope to achieve tactical, and perhaps eventually strategic, advantages.
