Restoring our image around the world. . . Part II

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, initially dubbed Sarko the American for his pro-U.S. stance, is finding it much tougher to deal with Washington than he had anticipated and is recalibrating his policies accordingly.

Stung by perceived snubs from U.S. President Barack Obama and encouraged by the growing importance of the G20, Sarkozy is increasingly reaching out to non-aligned states in an effort to extend France's international influence.

He has forged especially close ties with Brazil, is seeking alliances in central Asia and is intensifying his activities in the Middle East, using multi-billion dollar military and civilian nuclear trade deals as his calling card.

During the early days of the war all we heard out of the Left was that George W Bush was acting "unilaterally" and being a "cowboy" because we entered the conflict alone without a coalition of nations along with us.

Now the reality was that we were heading an alliance of a number of nations but it seemed that in whatever the Left uses for a mind no coalition could possibly be a true coalition unless it numbered France as one of its members.

The reality of the situation was that the Left's attitude that no possible action of the United States could be considered legitimate unless it was done in concert with France was born out of their certain knowledge that the men who were leading France at that time would never sign off on any genuine effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

The reason for that was that those French leaders were literally on Saddam's payroll. Millions of dollars from the Oil for Food Program were being siphoned off by Saddam and part of that money went into the pockets of French politicians as payment for acting as obstructionists against any plan which would put the UN imprimatur on a plan to oust Hussein from power.

We were told with confidant, even smug, assurance by the Democrat party the George W Bush's invasion of Iraq (in concert with a number of other nations and with congressional approval) had done terrible damage to our international reputation and our relationships with important allies - like France.

We were told with confidant, even smug, assurance by the Democrat party that the election of one Mr. Barack Hussein Obama (otherwise known as the little tin messiah) to the office of President of the United States would instantly heal our torn international relationships and restore America to a place of respect on the world stage.

So why then is the little tin messiah alienating our European allies?

First he issues a series of calculated insults to the United Kingdom, discarding the bust of Churchill which was a gift from their government to ours after 9/11, giving the Prime Minister a cheap box set of DVD's which won't even work in a European DVD player and giving the Queen an iPod with his own speeches on it - as though the greatest gift he could impart to the sovereign of the British Empire was a collection of his own gaseous teleprompter readings.

Then at the United Nations he undercuts France and Germany's plan to publicly confront Iran's pint-sized lunatic president with yet more evidence of his nations nuclear weapons program - so that it won't diminish the impact of his big speech (yet more gaseous teleprompter readings) to the world body.

Now we find that he as so alienated France that they are seeking military and nuclear deals in the Middle East and central Asia.

How's that "Hope and Change" working out?

Despite the fact that he's a global warming believer

And at least a soft socialist - and French - I still like this guy:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy showed flashes of temper and abruptly terminated a television interview aimed at introducing him to US audiences.

In the 60 Minutes interview, broadcast in the US on Sunday, the French president sparred with the reporter, called his press secretary an imbecile, said he was too busy to make time for a "stupid" interview and ended the whole conversation abruptly when asked about the state of his marriage to Cecilia.

The Sarkozys' divorce was announced about two weeks later.

"If I had something to say about Cecilia, I would not do so here," he said before cutting off further questions.

In two interviews, a brief one aboard a plane and a more formal one several weeks ago, he expressed his admiration for both the US work ethic and its pop music.

Asked about his father's fears years ago that anyone with a Hungarian last name like Sarkozy could not succeed in France, he said one thing he admires about the US democracy is its openness and opportunities to all kinds of people.

The above from The Sydney Morning Herald

Reflections on the French

The Brussels Journal has some observations on the recent French election:

A quote from Tom Peters at his blog, 8 May 2007

[Segolene Royal] in fact handily topped Sarkozy among those who are in the 18-59 demographic. That ain’t Gen X, my friends, that’s more or less everybody on active duty in the workforce!

So how, in the end, did Sarkozy become the [President of France]? Simple. He beat the bloody hell out of Royal among the 60-and-up crew. “Beat the bloody hell out of” equates to unheard of margins that were above 2-1.

That is, Team Elder exerted incredible, decisive de facto unity and power in France's demographically old-and-getting-older-and-we're-healthy-and-will-be-around-for-a-long-long-time population. It's not that Sarkozy beat Royal. The actual story is that the 60+ geezers have ordered the wee 60 minus crew to get the hell to work and stay the hell at work ... so the Six Zero Plussers can get their hands on the loot they need to spend their remaining winters in Nice, or some such.

And:

A quote from Helle Dale in The Washington Times, 9 May 2007

Mr. Sarkozy has been unabashedly pro-American in his campaign and his victory speech. “I want [...] to tell [our American friends] that they can count on our friendship, [...]” he said on Sunday. Then he went on to call for American leadership – in a cause that unfortunately has by now just about achieved the status of religion in Europe. “I want to tell them that [...] a great nation such as the United States has a duty not to put obstacles in the way of the fight against global warming, but on the contrary to take the lead in this fight, because what is at stake is the fate of humanity as a whole. France will make this battle its primary battle.”

There are other causes that one might have preferred for Mr. Sarkozy’s clarion call to American leadership – global terrorism, for instance, or political freedom, or even an end to world hunger, which would be easier to achieve than changing the climate of the earth by any measurable degree.

And, finally:

On the eve of the final round, Miss Royal declared on RTL television that Nicolas Sarkozy was a liar, a brutal man and a danger to the nation, and that his election would provoke a massive domestic uprising. If, as alleged in Le Monde on Monday, the Socialist candidate knew by then that she had no hope of winning, the implicit call for rebellion is all the more reprehensible. [...]

Shortly after Mr. Sarkozy’s victory was announced, clashes began at the Bastille in Paris and in countless French cities. [...] There is no guarantee that the banlieue will not explode in turn, but the current center-city uprising is led by extreme leftists, revolutionary Communists, anarchists, nihilists and misguided Segolene groupies. One rioter justified the violence as a protest against the police brutality that Mr. Sarkozy “plans to impose.” [...] France is aflutter with hope. [...] Accountability just might enter the French vocabulary.

Notice how Sarkozy could only be considered a "conservative" in a place like France. Notice also how the working population of France wanted even more destructive socialism.

EUROPE . . . IS . . . LOST.

Is Paris burning?

From The Brussels Journal:

As predicted, or more accurately, threatened by Ségolène Royal, there is violence in the wake of Nicolas Sarkozy’s victory in the French presidential election. The riot and mayhem in the streets of Paris recalls past acts of destruction and outrage at the hands of losing partisans: from the 1996 brawls in Washington, DC, by Dole supporters; to the destructive spree of angry Tories in the City of London in 1997; to the recent smashing of shop-windows by Republicans on 8 November 2006; and yes, to the violence visited upon the hapless City of Light by RPR youth in the aftermath of Mitterand’s 1988 victory in France. The present wreckage on French streets — see an excellent series of photos here — is therefore of a piece with long-established Western tradition.

Except it’s not, of course: the above-mentioned events are all fictitious, with the exception of the very real anti-Sarkozy violence. This is a curious thing, but notable: in the liberal West, at least, it is the left that has a near-monopoly on mob violence and public disorder today. We saw it emerge in the protests of the 1990s, and it has moved into more explicitly political spheres since. It is curious on two counts: first, because of the stereotype of left-wing activists is not a particularly violent one; second, because no political stripe not involving Quakers has any monopoly on violence in history. So why just the left, and why now?

[. . .]

It is pitiable and worrying all at once. They are bad losers who deserve whatever misery they bring upon themselves, be it abiding depression or a police truncheon. On the other hand, they are fellow-citizens, whether of America or France, whom we need to make democracy work. Democracy fails when its results are only sanctioned in the event of victory. In their anger, violence and loathing, the despondent leftists of America then, and France now, are not merely rejecting a particular election — they are abandoning the very idea that sustains their republic.


They are fellow-citizens whom we need to make democracy work only as long as they share the nation with us. If we shoot them all and throw the bodies into mass graves . . .

Hey, a man can dream, can't he?

France turns to the "right"

From The Washington Post:

PARIS, May 6 -- Nicolas Sarkozy, the combative son of a Hungarian immigrant, was elected president of France on Sunday, promising a new generation of leadership to transform the country, restore its self-respect and reinvigorate ties with the United States and Europe.

Sarkozy, a member of the ruling party and France's former top law enforcement officer, defeated Socialist Segolene Royal, who waged a determined battle to become France's first elected female head of state, by a 53 percent to 47 percent vote, according to final results. Voter turnout was a near-record 84 percent.

In a victory speech before a jubilant crowd of supporters in Paris, Sarkozy said voters "have chosen to break with the habits and behavior of the past." He pledged "to give greater value to work, to authority, to respect, to merit."

"I want to give French people back the pride of being French -- to finish with repentance, which is a form of self-hate," he said, renouncing a pervasive national malaise fed by economic decline at home and sinking influence abroad.

An unabashed admirer of America, Sarkozy, 52, had a special message for the United States, which has had troubled relations with France under President Jacques Chirac, who led international opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq.

"I'd like to appeal to our American friends to say that they can count on our friendship," he said. "But I would also like to say that friendship means accepting that your friends don't necessarily see eye to eye with you."

In particular, he said, "a great nation like the United States has the duty not to oppose the fight against global warming, but to lead that battle, because what is at stake is the destiny of mankind." Sarkozy said he would make the issue a top international priority as president.

His election signals a shift to the right in French politics and could herald a major transition for French society. Sarkozy has promised to boost economic growth and employment by cutting taxes, reducing deficits, shrinking government and loosening labor laws -- the kind of free-market policies embraced by the United States and Britain, but long eschewed by French leaders.

In selecting the passionate, pragmatic and pugnacious Sarkozy, who is a lawyer by training, voters rejected Royal's prescription of continuing big spending programs to protect and expand France's vast social welfare state.

Only in France, well Old Europe in general, could a politician who starts off his victory speech by prattling about global warming be considered "conservative".

I believe that Sarkozy is sincere, but I do not believe that he will be successful. What is wrong with France was woven into the fabric of the nation by design. To restore the nation to health would mean giving up things which the average French person values too highly. That the various socialist handouts are what is killing the nation is something that the Frenchman's perceived self-interest will not allow him to see.

So what Sarkozy will deliver are basically cosmetic reforms which may, at most, buy a little time before the final implosion. Still I give the French some credit for at least being able to realize that Royal would have only driven the speedboat even faster toward the waterfall.