But I Thought France And Germany Hated Us?!?!?!
Little ado was made this week about France’s new Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner’s trip to Iraq. While in office, Chirac did everything in his power to destroy the relationship that our two countries had. At one point, when Chirac attempted to forge an anti-American triple alliance. Nicolas Sarkozy has made it his mission to repair the fractured relationship France has with the USA and our forty allies that went into Iraq.
Kouchner’s visit, full of symbolism, shatters one of the key points in Al Qaida’s analysis: that the Western powers will never find enough unity to develop a common strategy against terror.
At one point, when Chirac invited German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin to a gathering to forge an anti-American triple alliance, Al Qaida’s analysis appeared to have some basis in reality.
Now, however, both Chancellor Angela Merkel and Sarkozy understand the stark fact that the perception of Western disunity may be one of the factors that prolongs the conflict in Iraq.
There is only one major problem with Sakozy’s plan for unity….The world hates us, don’t you know!? Why, we have never been more unpopular, don’t you know!? This can’t be true..France, Germany and the USA..working together for the common good?
The Gay Patriot has tons more. See also memeorandum
August 23, 2007 - 10:55 AM on August 23rd, 2007
It seems interesting that the Euros are now starting to understand this. Perhaps they could enlighten the Democrite leadership? (so-called “Americans”).
August 23, 2007 - 11:44 AM on August 23rd, 2007
I do believe that the majority of Europe did/does understand this…it is the radical fringe that got their voices to be heard, and created many problems for France/Germany
August 24, 2007 - 04:03 AM on August 24th, 2007
As a German I can say that our “hate” is very picky and that it definitely does not (and never did) exits in the western direction.
I personally hate this Sarkozy-asshole for making somewhat secret weapon factory deals with Libya while boastfully playing the great savior in the affair of the convicted nurses… but that’s another story…
August 24, 2007 - 06:08 AM on August 24th, 2007
3- and yet you have always been so quick to let us know that GWB has made us hated by our European friends….
August 24, 2007 - 12:13 PM on August 24th, 2007
4- If I said it that way (and I can not deny this being possible), I have to correct myself. I would never dare to judge or express antipathy about faults that were done due to mental deficits…
August 24, 2007 - 03:53 PM on August 24th, 2007
In general, the French and the Germans don’t hate us. They do, however, vehemently oppose much of our foreign policy.
If you actually think that Sarkozy’s gestures of solidarity with the U.S. means that France is now behind our occupation of Iraq, take a look at some recent back issues of Le Monde, Figaro, and Liberation (basically, center, right and left within the French scene). Not only did Sarkozy try to distance himself from Bush’s foreign policies throughout his campaign, he tried to use his (extensive) media ties to prevent pictures of himself shaking hands with Bush from being printed in the weeks leading up to the election. Bush = Iraq for a lot of the world. Sarkozy did, however, state that he’d be more America-friendly than Chirac (who gave Sarko his start in politics and whose policies Sarko by and large still follows).
When the U.S. invaded Iraq, we saw Europe-wide protests: http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/02/15/sprj.irq.protests.europe/
Since Iraq has proven to be such a disaster, I suspect that collective Europe feels pretty-much redeemed in its assessment.
With Blair out, “Britain’s long-awaited and much-postponed pull-out from the Basra palace, its last remaining base in the Iraqi city, is imminent, sources have told the Guardian.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2155360,00.html
None of this means that Britain, or France, or Germany hates us (or has hated us for quite some time), though. Why should a criticism of a country’s foreign policy mean that you hate that country? It’s depressing to think that someone wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the policies of a country’s leaders and the reality of a country’s citizenry.
August 24, 2007 - 04:04 PM on August 24th, 2007
I found a website that compiles “world opinion polls.”
Here’s one that the BBC conducted on World views of the U.S.
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/international_security_bt/306.php?nid=&id=&pnt=306&lb=btvoc
Spin away…
August 24, 2007 - 04:06 PM on August 24th, 2007
Here’s the same poll but with specifically European data:
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/jan07/BBC_USRole_Jan07_bgeurope.pdf
August 26, 2007 - 02:41 PM on August 26th, 2007
hosten, thanks for the links to the polls, but they wern’t necessary. I never thought that Sarkozy was all of a sudden for the war in Iraq, but the symbolic gesture was not lost. Chirac did the damage, not GWB..Chirac allowed himself to be led by the far left fringe and it bit France in the ass. The U.S and our European allies are allowed to disagree on issues..it is how you choose to disagree that matters.
August 27, 2007 - 06:33 AM on August 27th, 2007
Peezj,
Chirac was a close friend to Hussein. Chirac paved the way for Hussein to get the nuclear reactor that Israel bombed.