And now, a moment for politics.
Apr. 23rd, 2003 11:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
holzman_tweedFrance disagreed with us strongly about how to properly handle Iraq. Get over it. This is what democracy is like. I realize that our "President's" fans have lost their taste for free society in their flirtation with empire, but this is getting stupid. Excuse me, this got stupid whith "Freedom fries," we are now progressing onto stupider.
To everyone who seems to think France has betrayed some obligation to the United States incurred by the deaths of American soldiers in World War II, I say: Pull your heads out of your asses.
In the first place, the United States was not incurring a debt. If anything, it was repaying it -- the French incurred the debt in the person of Lafayette during the Revolutionary War. Hence the announcement "Lafayette, we are here!"
In the second place, when France fell the United States didn't give a flying fuck. France surrendered June 22, 1940. The United States went to war in December 1941, and it wasn't about liberating France, it was about retaliating for the attack on Pearl Harbor. In case you missed it, here it is again: The United States entered WWII when it was in the interests of the United States to do so, and not a moment before. Indeed, it wasn't until 1944 that we even bothered trying to liberate France, and the main motivation there was that through France was the best way to get to Germany.
In the third place, assuming Bush and company don't irretrivably screw up our relationship with France (and the EU, NATO, the UN, and pretty much everyone else, too), I've got no doubt that France would send troops to assist in liberating the United States from invading Iraqi forces. Maybe the New York Times forgot to mention it, but I don't recall reading about any such invasion. Until and unless that happens, I don't see where this notion that France owes us comes up.
In the fourth place, in case you missed it, France was right -- the invasion instead of continuing the inspection and disarmament process was not the immediate necessity Bush claimed it to be. The Chicago Cubs have a better track record winning the World Series than we have finding WMDs in Iraq. We've handled the situation so badly that even if we do find some WMDs, we're going to have a hell of a time convincing anyone that we didn't plant them to save face. We're alienating the locals so badly that Shi'ites and Sunni are setting aside their petty differences, making common cause out of not liking us. (I guess Bush IS a uniter, not a divider, after all!) Mapmakers are already checking the spelling on "Islamic Republic of Iraq," as that's looking more and more like the outcome of any actual democratic process. Yes, yes, deposing Hussein is a good thing, but it's a good thing that could have been accomplished without killing thousands of people, permitting thousands of irreplacable artifacts to be looted, and getting the US so deeply into debt that Carl Sagan would have been hard pressed to describe it.
And now we're going to set out to "punish" France for not kissing ass like a good little client state? Oh, good call! After all, we hadn't alienated enough of the world. If there's one thing the economy really needs right now, it's a trade war with Europe! On the other hand, if France takes us to the WTC and we find our selves contractually obligated to back off, well we haven't been embarassed by foreign policy blunders enough in the first place.
To everyone who seems to think France has betrayed some obligation to the United States incurred by the deaths of American soldiers in World War II, I say: Pull your heads out of your asses.
In the first place, the United States was not incurring a debt. If anything, it was repaying it -- the French incurred the debt in the person of Lafayette during the Revolutionary War. Hence the announcement "Lafayette, we are here!"
In the second place, when France fell the United States didn't give a flying fuck. France surrendered June 22, 1940. The United States went to war in December 1941, and it wasn't about liberating France, it was about retaliating for the attack on Pearl Harbor. In case you missed it, here it is again: The United States entered WWII when it was in the interests of the United States to do so, and not a moment before. Indeed, it wasn't until 1944 that we even bothered trying to liberate France, and the main motivation there was that through France was the best way to get to Germany.
In the third place, assuming Bush and company don't irretrivably screw up our relationship with France (and the EU, NATO, the UN, and pretty much everyone else, too), I've got no doubt that France would send troops to assist in liberating the United States from invading Iraqi forces. Maybe the New York Times forgot to mention it, but I don't recall reading about any such invasion. Until and unless that happens, I don't see where this notion that France owes us comes up.
In the fourth place, in case you missed it, France was right -- the invasion instead of continuing the inspection and disarmament process was not the immediate necessity Bush claimed it to be. The Chicago Cubs have a better track record winning the World Series than we have finding WMDs in Iraq. We've handled the situation so badly that even if we do find some WMDs, we're going to have a hell of a time convincing anyone that we didn't plant them to save face. We're alienating the locals so badly that Shi'ites and Sunni are setting aside their petty differences, making common cause out of not liking us. (I guess Bush IS a uniter, not a divider, after all!) Mapmakers are already checking the spelling on "Islamic Republic of Iraq," as that's looking more and more like the outcome of any actual democratic process. Yes, yes, deposing Hussein is a good thing, but it's a good thing that could have been accomplished without killing thousands of people, permitting thousands of irreplacable artifacts to be looted, and getting the US so deeply into debt that Carl Sagan would have been hard pressed to describe it.
And now we're going to set out to "punish" France for not kissing ass like a good little client state? Oh, good call! After all, we hadn't alienated enough of the world. If there's one thing the economy really needs right now, it's a trade war with Europe! On the other hand, if France takes us to the WTC and we find our selves contractually obligated to back off, well we haven't been embarassed by foreign policy blunders enough in the first place.
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-23 10:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-23 11:48 am (UTC)