"Knee-jerk hatred"
Hurrah! As President Bush heads across the pond, The Periscope keeps up the good work of finding useful links and the like, and the New York Times reports that the Pres will make the sensible point that "our strong friendship is essential to peace and prosperity across the globe - and no temporary debate, no passing disagreement of governments, no power on earth will ever divide us."
Meanwhile, The National Review celebrates these attempts to heal the transatlantic rifts with a simply brilliant piece of stereotypical nonsense which almost reads like a parody of the worst examples of American anti-Europeanism of the last few years.
It hits all the bases in an absolutely atypical over-exaggeration of all that's wrong with 'Urp - usually based on some kind of reality, but distored beyond all reason. In fact, it's almost an exact mirror-image of the worst sort of "anti-Americanism" that has come out of the EU over the last few years - only more so:
- The EU's economy is reliant on that of the US? Check.
- European militaries full of "rapists, thugs, robbers, and killers"? Check.
- Hypocricy of the likes of accusing EU states of basing their foreign policies on their "very large oil and other investments"? Check.
- Europe is anti-Semitic? Check.
- The problems in the Middle-East are Europe's fault? Check.
- We have "fancy schools like Eton"? Check.
- We're ignorant ("In Britain, only a small fraction of people under 30 knew anything about Auschwitz")? Check.
- France "eagerly collaborated in the Holocaust"? Check.
- France is "playing enabler to anti-Semitic terrorism"? Check.
- France and Germany are obsolete ("if they were American sitcoms, would be cancelled")? Check.
- France and Germany's only policy motivation is "anti-Americanism"? Check.
- Policies not based on hatred are based on "arrogance"? Check.
- They also hate "the culture of the American people"? Check.
- French and German opposition to the war on terror is purely populist? Check.
- Everything is Europe's fault? Check.
Bush: Right, I admit it, there were no WMDs and no links to al Qaida, we just wanted to get rid of Saddam. Partly to open up Iraqi oil again, partly - genuinely - to bring democracy to the country. And yes, I know it's hypocritical to try to promote democracy in Iraq when two of our key regional allies are the military dictatorship of Pakistan and absolutist monarchy of Saudi Arabia, but we have to go with what we've got. Yes, I also know that Iraq hasn't gone as well as it might, and that we buggered up the post-war planning something rotten, but we are trying. Honest.
France and Germany: Fair enough. We opposed the war primarily because we had a sweet deal going on with the Iraqi regime, but also because we genuinely thought your reasons were bollocks and didn't like the direction your foreign policy seemed to be heading (yes, partially because it seemed to make us increasingly irrelevant on the world stage). And - yes - you've got a point, opposing your administration is a good vote winner where we come from. You've got us there. But still, we reckon you fucked it up pretty bad, and your utter lack of tact and diplomacy when talking about our attitudes at the time hardly helped matters. You could have won us round if you'd had a bit more patience and were slightly less aggressive. No one likes a bully, and that's how you were coming across. It pissed us off, because we know you're bigger and stronger than us, but sizable chunks of our respective populations still think we're genuinely world powers. We know we're not, but we have to make a show of it every now and again...
Bush: Yeah, my bad. So, you on side for clearing up the mess now?
France and Germany: Yeah, go on then...
*France, Germany and Bush skip off hand in hand for a great big love-fest, as Tony Blair sits on the edge of the bed holding the camcorder*
4 Comments:
And the best bit of the NR piece was the author payoff line at the bottom:
"Denis Boyles is author of Vile France: Fear, Duplicity, Cowardice and Cheese."
Imaginre if all politicians everywhewre became infected by a virus which had an interesting symptom... it forced them to always tell the truth.
J&J - brilliant, isn't it?
anotherblogger - me too. I doubt it somehow, but me too...
phil - what need a virus when we've got Kilroy and Veritas?
I agree with the scenario you present for the way that things should be brought off between the erstwhile allies but a few of the things you blithely brush off, hopefully in jest, concerns me.
Because the source of the article is obviously a Francophobe with an agenda does not negate the existence of anti-Semitism in Europe and the pro-Arab, anti-Israel sympathies of the Euro governments. The fact that the considerations of oil supply is involved here does not escape notice. Since my country is accused of this by every serial whiner in Europe means that I give no Euro a pass on it.
As far as the European anti-Semitism rap is concerned the continent has quite a rap sheet, and about 6,000,000 pieces of evidence.
This slaughter and the forced (that's what I would call it) emigration of Jews to Palestine led to the establishment of the jewish state, which is the primary cause of the problems in the region. Additionally, the post WW1 consideration of Euro "areas of interest" by E,F,I created the current national borders in the Mideast and were enforced principally by Euros with no consent of the people in the region. These are facts and bear no comment or rebuttal. As I said, the evidence is on, or in, the ground.
BTW: I'm not a Jew and have no Zionist axes to grind... these are facts, Euro anti-Semitism led to Euro genocide of Jews. But that means little when those American meanies are dressing prisoners up in panties.
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