For the Love of France!
by David Z. Dent
Why is the US so disappointed in France? Why are we so much more emotionally upset at France than of Germany or Belgium? I think the answer is many-fold and - like most answers sought in politics and foreign policy - can be found in history. The answer, or at least a healthy and unmentioned part of it, is that we love France. As toxic as their hatred of us is, as ridicuous as their political stances are, as difficult and as troublesome as they may be as an ally, we love France. And the actions of Chirac and his band of bigoted socialists have hurt us like a jilted lover.
The obvious answer is that they actively maneuvered against the US and tried to manipulate the Security Council members against us. This went so far as to attempt to form a new political alliance to counter the hegemony of the US in the world, with France at the center. This is dirty pool when they are supposed to be our ally. The actions of Chirac and his government have given many current reasons to be upset with France. There is no need for me to make any other argument. One could make a sufficient argument on those grounds alone.
The problem is that, based upon only objective data, France hasn't been our ally since 1789. They only supported us in 1776 because they were still smarting from losing the French and Indian Wars (once again, the barbaric Britons deflowered the noble Gaul). As a perpetual enemy, it was only natural for France to support an unruly colony, just as they had funded trouble makers in Scotland and Ireland for centuries (since 1327, I believe. Remember Agincourt?). We repaid their kindness by instilling a romantic fervor for freedom in some of her noble populace like Lafayette that led to beheading their incompetant, fat, and lazy king in...1789.
The French Revolution never officially ended. De Gaulle established the first lasting government since Napoleon. The French have not done a single thing since 1789 to earn the status as an ally. We repaid our gratitude for our own Revolution by kicking the Nazis out of France, and then we occupied France for a time until we were sure that the communists wouldn't take over and the Korean War broke out. In fact, the US didn't enter WWII to save France at all. It was a byproduct of defeating Hitler.
Then France was our ally. In NATO. We gave them a permanent seat on the Security Council at the UN. Why? When we first arrived in North Africa in 1942, the Vichy French fired upon us and killed several US soldiers. What objective benefit do we get for putting up with the French? Our sentimental attachment to them.
The France was formed out of the amorphous chaos wrought by the fall of the western Roman Empire by Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor. The French carried the torch of Western Civilization in the west for centuries while the protazoic barbarians in the rest of europe incubated. France was the crucible of who we are during a very trying time in history, she was the mother of the modern world and still bears the scars of that birthing process today.
France wasn't a cohesive political entity as we know it until Agincourt in 1327. The Hundred Years War created the notion of a State, and France and England were the first two States in western culture because of it.
France fought to have its own Pope. She fought to maintain the flower of chivalry during a brutal and eternal guerilla war with the English. And sometime after all of this she co-opted the Renaissance from the Italians and made it French. The pain and misery wrought by the Hundred years war, I believe, created the engine for one of the most beautiful periods of art, science, and philosophy in human history...in France. At this point, France became a Lady. A beautiful, precious lady. The breathtaking first spring flower after a long and tragic winter.
The Enlightenment then brought us brilliant mathematicians and philosophers. The best of Mankind can be found in the history of France. Decartes, Pascal, Rousseau, Foucault, Fourier, Laplace, this list goes on.
The French language is beautiful to hear, it is beautiful to speak, it speaks of beauty like almost no other. The French countryside is as beautiful a place on Earth as one can find. Despite my cynical view of the French involvement in the American Revolution, there were some true French democrats that enabled our cause and fought in our War and believed in the Divine Providence like our Founding Fathers did. They succored it. They nurtured it. They helped make it happen. There are many in France today that still love the US. And Americans love France...or at least the idea of France.
I believe that Americans have a sentimental and emotional attachment to France that cuts their government far too much slack and allows them to drift into dangerous directions. I believe that it is time to revive Radio Free Europe again and broadcast in France, Germany Spain and parts of Italy. Our beloved in europe want to love America, but the socialists are poisoning the well and suffocating our dearest and most treasured friends.
We need a Fox News in Europe. A truly free press that reports some truths about America. They need to hear our side. The socialists in this country and in Europe are winning because we won't enter the fight. Every time socialism is countered with any effort at all, it falters and disapates. The moldy system withers and dies with the sunlight truth shined upon it.
For the love of France, we need to fight in the arena of public opinion in Europe. For our own enlightened self-interest, we cannot allow Europe to drift back into facism, paganism, and communism. For the love of France and all of Western Civilization, Americans must fight the war of words to preserve and promote the greatest experiment ever tried in history...freedom.
Look who made it onto the Weekly Standard Online
by Jason Stonefeld
Your humble scribe submitted some commentary to the Weekly Standard Online, which was featured as a letter to the editor. Click
here
New Hope
by David Z. Dent
I haven't blogged in a while. Been sorta busy with a new baby, a booming business and, try as I might, I just can't seem to operate on less than 7 hours of sleep for very long. Eventually, my body siezes control and gets the sleep it needs, planned or not.
I wake up from a disappointed haze to find that since my last blog, good news from Iraq is surfacing in even the mainstream press. Arnold is the guv in California. Texas redistricted finally to reflect the new reality in the state, and there are two more governorships in play for the GOP.
Bush's number went down, but not significantly lower than any other President at this time in their presidency. You see, there are nine (formerly ten with Mr. Florida) wannabe candidates daily bashing and criticizing anything they can think of to gain traction with the President. They change tack frequently, trying to pick up on a slight and fickle wind that blows Democratic these days.
Once GWB starts to spend some of the money he has raised to counter them, they will sink. The problem is that there are nine people to counter. He is just holding back and countering generally and gently using policy and is office without spending a dime of his war chest. At some point, a single candidate will emerge and they will be in trouble. Now that Grahm dropped out, perhaps that is a sign that more will soon drop the race. I believe that once the field drops to a small handful, there will be some general responses paid for by the GWB campaign.
My contention is still that the media carries the water for the DNC and that if they didn't, there wouldn't be any party at all. There policies for the last several (maybe 30!) years have been aweful for our country and proven to any thinking adult to be failures. California is a wakeup call that the DNC doesn't seem to understand. They can only hold on to their electorate with lies and subterfuge. Once the truth comes out, people like Arnold get elected and people like Gray Davis get politically terminated.
Additionally, Israel flew into Syria and bombed a terrorist training camp after a most heinous attack the day before Yom Kippur. Syria's limp noodle whined to the UN and the US hummed...It was beautiful. That silence was deafening throughout the world, trust me.
Additionally, the Congress just passed a resolution encouraging sanctions against Syria as a terrorist state, and Israel is saber-rattling. The argument that Israel has a right to defend itself against terrorism, just like the US did in Afghanistan and Iraq, is meeting with a muted horror and a gnashing of teeth on the Security Council, which voted 15-0 for 1441. Suddenly, words mean something with the USA, and nations are doing two things now;
1. Being more careful what they say and do.
2. Listening when the USA talks.
How is that bad? Ask any of our major media outlets and they will bluster and puff and rant and gesticulate impotently, and eloquently, saying nothing in response of substance. That is why they hate GWB. That is why they hate conservatives. That is why they hate America and what it really stands for.
One cannot make an unjaundiced study of the history of the USA, from its inception, and be a lefty. It can't be done. Measure it anyway you like. The USA is God's greatest gift thus far to humanity. You'd think the ungrateful sots would try to make it last as long as possible...ok, I guess libertinism and radical egalitarianism are more important.
The CIA leak is a charge that will have no impact on GWB by election time. The leak will be found, fired, and perhaps prosecuted. And...you heard it here first...it could be that this is much ado about nothing. Val's status in the Agency is still unknown, Surfer Ambassador Dude was known to be a disgruntled lefty hack that hates Rove and GWB, and there could be egg on the face of Novak and others. In fact, there could be charges or at least a credibility problem backlash with the media involved.
Kay's report completely validated everything we've done in Iraq, all by itself. Remember, there were three reasons outlined by Wolfowitz as he paraphrased his Chief;
1. WMD's missing and unaccounted for from 1991. Potential of Saddam handing these devices over to terrorist groups.
2. Iraq's known support of terrorist groups.
3. The severe humanitarian crisis for the Iraqi people.
In addition, there was never a peace declared from the Persian Gulf War of 1991. Only a cease fire. That cease fire was contingent upon Saddam accounting for his WMD's and being a good boy. He was a bad boy for 12 years and never accounted for a thing. How many resolutions did the UN hand down to him, demanding *immediate* compliance? Poor, dumb US Prez, actually thought immediate meant right now!
The left is trying to spin this nonsense about "immediate threat" and the press is lapping up this curdled milk like a cat that is too old, dumb and infirm to notice the difference. There are only two possibilities here; either the media is comprised of idiots (and there is some argument there), or they bear malice toward the very principles that protect their right. Stupid or Seditious. No middle ground.
I have new hope for our great nation. I believe that the internet, talk radio, and the cable news services have begun to send tremors throughout the political world that must be terrifying to the left and bring only hope and promise to the right.
