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| Europe |
| What French papers say |
| 2003-03-28 |
| Two cartoons on the front page of Le Monde this week sum up France's morbid amusement at the progress of the war in Iraq. Thursday's paper showed an American soldier striding over piles of bodies of women and children muttering to himself: "This sandstorm's awful." Paint 'em black, make it a mountain and call it Anywhere, Francophone Africa... Today's shows President George W Bush at the controls of a plane shouting to parachutists as they jump "Watch out! It's full of Arabs!" French satire at its most biting... French television coverage has focused heavily on the suffering of Iraqis, especially those Even as the regime reportedly murders more civilians than its own propaganda tells us we've killed unintentionally. In Paris Match this week, the editor, Alain Genestar, writes: "War is ugly. This one, like others, should be condemned. But to this ugliness is added this unhealthy rejoicing at the difficulties faced by those who decided to launch war. "Here and there, never, of course, officially in the chancelleries, but in the streets and demonstrations, people take pleasure in mocking the American troops for their suffering, their mistakes and reverses as if these obstacles in the path of war prove they are right to be against Bush." It's getting hard to distinguish between the Paris Boulevade and the Palestinian Street lately. The loss and damage to Apache helicopters early in the conflict prompted French parliamentarians to joke in private that the Americans would have been better off with French helicopters. I suppose they do fly you backwards out of a sticky situation backwards faster than anyone else's. VSD, a popular magazine normally full of minor celebrities on holiday, put on its cover this week a picture of American soldiers walking with their heads down through a sandstorm. The headline read: "Apocalypse now: Bush's mad crusade leads us towards a humanitarian catastrophe." Or you could say the opposite. In fact what do they mean "us"? Far as I'm aware there aren't any Frogs in Iraq. Seems like the suffering's "theirs" until the US/UK move in, now it's "ours". Pierre Lellouche, the most vocal opponent of President Chirac's stance on Iraq within his parliamentary party, said of his fellow deputies "seeing the Americans and British get a bloody nose makes them happy. "They don't understand that if they lose, all the dictators, all the tyrants, all the proliferators will have a field day. Then what is the advantage for France in chaos?" Trouble is, Lellouche, I think they do understand. Anarchy can be synonymous with multipolarity, Chirac's utopia. President Jacques Chirac and his diplomatic team find themselves in the awkward position of criticising the war, hoping for its swift conclusion and yet knowing that a successful conflict will be seen as a defeat for French foreign policy. And we're going to enjoy watching you squirm. Le Monde's editorial yesterday said that whatever the outcome of the war, the difficulties already experienced have destroyed the hopes of American neo-conservatives that this war would be a model for toppling dictators throughout the Middle East. It's a bit early to quantify the effect of the dfficulties. But models are there be readjusted. |
| Posted by:Bulldog |
| #6 The French have done a great job over the last 100 years of turning over. The protests in Paris before WWII to have the country disarm and live in peace is indicative of the mind set. Let us disarm so we can be overrun and humiliated must be the number 2 past time of the country closely behind protesting. Of any two countries in the world that should stand The French have done a great job over the last 100 years of turning over. The protests in Paris before WWII to have the country disarm and live in peace is indicative of the mind set. Let us disarm so we can be overrun and humiliated must be the number 2 past time of the country closely behind protesting. Of any two countries in the world that should stand against fascism and dictatorships should be the French and Germans. Our hypocrisy? Our evil ways? Hey Chirac, look in the mirror because your inaction to stop evil is collusion. The same way your country colluded in German production of war materials after the Nazi's rolled through Paris, and has colluded in selling illegal material to Iraq. Go ahead and protest. It's easier to blame others than yourself. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-03-28 15:11:59 |
| #5 We didn't need to go to Iraq to see arabs, all we had to do is go to france! |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-03-28 14:19:36 |
| #4 They don't understand that if they lose, all the dictators, all the tyrants, all the proliferators will have a field day. Then what is the advantage for France in chaos?" Plenty of advantage for France in chaos. Official policy is to aid, abet and trade with dictators, tyrants and proiferators. |
| Posted by: bdm 2003-03-28 11:22:31 |
| #3 Hummm, I'm afraid I'll have to agree with the palestinian comparison. General feeling here in la belle France is that everybody is quietly waiting for the US to fail; not being vocably anti-US is deemed as being "pro-US", which I'm certainly not btw, G. W. Bush is slandered all over the place, dumb as shit, coward, manipulated, racist, muslim-hater, religious zealot,..., Blair is a poddle, Bush's bitch, a mindless follower,... Demagogy, stupidity, blindness, arrogance, fashionable antisemistism disguised as "antisionism" all around. Not too proud to be french, these days. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-03-28 11:19:37 |
| #2 The loss and damage to Apache helicopters early in the conflict prompted French parliamentarians to joke in private that the Americans would have been better off with French helicopters. Want to talk about French aircraft carriers? Pierre Lellouche, the most vocal opponent of President Chirac's stance on Iraq within his parliamentary party, said of his fellow deputies "seeing the Americans and British get a bloody nose makes them happy. They don't understand that if they lose, all the dictators, all the tyrants, all the proliferators will have a field day. Then what is the advantage for France in chaos?" Bravo for Lellouche, one of the few Frenchman who can add two and two together and come up with a number that is independent of the opinion polls. The anti-war protesters obviously believe that ONLY the armed forces of the United States and Israel can be "effectively defeated" by protests, mindless slogans, fancy costumes and floats, and ejection of bodily fluids. If they were truly against war, then they obviously believe that such tactics are useless against anyone else, since there were no such protests when Saddam invaded Iran and Kuwait, when Russia invaded Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Afghanistan, when Red China invaded Tibet, when Milosovic was waging war in the Balkans, when Tanzania invaded Uganda to kick out Idi Amin, when Argentina took the Falklands, and when Great Britain took the Falklands back. If US Foreign policy is truly controlled by a Vast Zionist Conspiracy, then why hold to the vain belief that said Zionists give a flying F*ck to the message of "No War", spelled out on the grass with the bodies of nude women lying face down because they know they're butt ugly? |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-03-28 07:33:55 |
| #1 I think what most of the world hasn't yet figured out is that Bill Clinton, the Apologizer-in-Chief, is no longer in charge. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2003-03-28 06:28:00 |