Kesher Talk

It's all about ooooiiiiiiiilllllll - for France. Long interesting discussion at Winds of Change about France's recent foreign policy. Among the many comments:

. . . My criticism of the French has little to do with their opposition to the war per se. Indeed, its extreme form of realpolitik, devoid of any regard for human rights, decency, and responsibility, is hardly new. Moreover, French leftism is only marginally similar to American leftism in their shared collectivist approaches. American leftism is far more superficial and diffuse. French leftism is harder to define, since the French parties on the right support a great deal of "collectivism" that Americans would label as "leftist" and the French left is hardly multiculturalist. Indeed, both the left and the right in France have been coopting National Front hyper-nationalist and xenophobic themes for some time. Another important difference is that on neither left nor the right in France do you find any self-reflection, let alone criticism, regarding the morality or even wisdom of that country's own actions abroad: there is a common advocacy of the "Raison d'Etat".

. . . One need look no further than the dozens of French military or intelligence service interventions in Africa over the past 40 years to protect French strategic and commercial interests, with nary a discouraging word among the political classes or the press. Also instructive is the French position in the first Gulf War - the one that really was about oil. The U.S. Senate could barely eke out a majority (52-48) in support of that war. In contrast, the French government approved the intervention by a 92% vote in the National Assembly and a 95% vote in the Senate. And that was with a Socialist Party majority in power! In that case, French commercial and strategic interests truly were at stake: France in contrast to the U.S. produces no oil and is 100% dependent on imports. The French are hardly pacifists.

. . . One might add the recent consolidation of relations by France with Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and the Palestinian Authority. The French of course will cite their so-called "historical ties" with the region and the need for another force to counter the U.S. hegemon. But the whole rapprochement has a distinctly commercial and obstructionist smell to it. It certainly has nothing to do with concern for third world peoples or collective security. Indeed, France more or less openly supports the perpetuation of dictatorships in the Arab world (and elsewhere) in the interests of ensuring the stability necessary to cultivating its commercial and strategic interests in the region.

posted by Judith @ 6/22/2003 01:12:23 PM