France didn't just help Saddam, France PROVIDED HIM WITH NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY.
France has done quite a few things over the years and I'm sure the US has pissed off France.
Let's not forget how it was France that essentially put the bloody Khomeini into power in Iran. I could forgive them for a lot of things but for this, never.
-Rudey
Quote:
Originally posted by PhiPsiRuss
I don't condemn the entire country, and I certainly don't condemn French culture. Just the majority of contemporary Frenchmen who repeatedly elect these uber-nationalistic leaders.
There is no parrallel in contemperary American history for electing such presidents. None. Every single president since WWII has been committed to Atlanticist policies, and to expanding this to new spheres. So have the leaders of every major Western European nation, except for France. Every single president since WWII has embraced economic interdependence as the
only way to bring universal prosperity, and to eventually eliminate war. So have the leaders of every major Western European nation, except for France.
It is widely recognized among international leaders and scholars that a "balance of power" is more likely to lead to war than a structure with some type of hegemon. France wants a balance of power, and they want to lead a competing sphere. They want to dismantle the Atlanticist coalition that they have occasionally been a part of, and from which they have always benefited, for more than a half of a century. Do the French want war? I doubt it, but they are clearly too selfish to care about the consequences of their actions. France is a borderline xenophobic nation, and this is not a good thing.
And then there is the constant posturing by French intellectuals about how they can compliment American might with French wisdom. Like the wisdom to perpetually support genocidal regimes. When I say "support," I don't mean trade agreements. Go see Hotel Rwanda. You will be disgusted at the France of 1994. Openly selling arms to a government that was not only in the middle of a genocide, but that was so much under French influence that it was willing to curtail the genocide at French insistance. France chose to not use their influence to end this genocide (not that the U.S. was much better.)
Or how France was at Baathist Iraq's side almost every step of the way, only temporarily leaving during the 1991 Gulf War. Here's a lovely picture of Chirac and Sadaam:
Even after the '91 war, when Baathist Iraq was put under UN sanctions, France helped Iraq evade those sanctions. So what if Iraq was genocidal?
Or how about the way that after 9-11, a best selling French book appeared offering an absurd conspiracy theory about how the Bush administration caused it. Chirac's government has been silent as most of the French have come to believe this to be true.
France was once America's friend. France was once the friend of free people all over the globe. No more.
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