Hi HH; All the French are doing is exactly what the majority of the nations in the UN want. That the US hasn't convinced them to just shut their mouths is not due to some sort of evil effect on the part of the French, but is instead due to the simple fact that France (and Russia, Germany and China), unlike Mexico or Cameroon (or whoever), is too big to cow.
When humans get in fights, they try to obtain sympathy in order to obtain assistance from other humans. The Iraq conflict is no different. The political battle is not a battle of armaments, it is a battle for hearts and minds. In that, we have seriously been beaten.
Our losing the "hearts and minds" battle dates back to the closing days of the first Gulf War. When we pounded the crap out of that one fleeing column of Iraqi vehicles we lost the sympathy position. Before that time, we were the liberators of Kuwait, the upholders of freedom (in the view of the average citizen of the world). After that time, we became the bully, the bloodthirsty killer (again, in the eyes of the world). Bush recognized this, and he immediately called off the assault.
In retrospect, this was an error, as we would probably have gotten back the "liberator" title when we got to Baghdad. But now 12 years have gone by and it is too late to win back the hearts and mind battle.
Nations, like people, do things for emotional reasons, as well as rational ones. Nations are run, after all, by people, not machines. What France is doing is not the slightest bit different from what their citizens wish to do. This should not be a surprise.
It's a battle of hearts and minds, not a battle of right and wrong. Maybe we've won the battle of right and wrong. Maybe we are God's chosen people. Maybe we're right just this one time. Whatever. Being right doesn't mean that you win the armaments war, and being right doesn't mean that you win the hearts and mind battle.
And right now, we're losing the hearts and minds conflict, so of course we don't get much assistance abroad.
-- Carl |
