With genuine admiration we must say that there is no other country on earth that pursues its core national interests in as determined and ruthless a manner as France. Unlike the USA which has three thousand interests all competing for number one, France has pared down its interests essentially to [promote and pursue French economic and commercial interests above all else and to prevent American hegemony.]
Truly, I am in awe of the focus of France. They blow up a Greenpeace ship and their people shrug. We blow up a murderous dictator’s regime and a quarter of our people are outraged? The Diplomad adds:
Some might say, this is not too dissimilar from traditional US policy in parts of Latin America. Perhaps. But where our admiration for the French really comes in is that they get away with it with nary a whisper of international criticism! In fact, the French loudly condemned our interventions in Grenada and Panama, joining in the anti-US UN debate on those actions, but yet do the same thing themselves (with admittedly less military skill) in Ivory Coast and elsewhere in Africa.
This of course is the part that makes me mad. When the vaunted values of the international community are only focused on us, it is hypocrisy and not idealism.
We need to seriously remold the international community—the UN—to keep from getting the dirty end of the stick every time in international debate.
