By welcoming Sarkozy to his parents' seaside home, Bush is laying a foundation for what he hopes are drastically improved relations with France over the rest of his term. In turn, the newly elected Sarkozy is eager to bond with Bush and display a pro-American mind-set.
"It would be impossible to think of Jacques Chirac stopping by Kennebunkport for lunch," said Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow for Europe studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. "This speaks volumes for the desires on both sides to try to turn the page."
In the end, the only people that President Bush has definitely alienated are the jihadis who we seek out and kill and our own Left. Not that I'm implying anything. Our Left always says that secular and religious forces cannot have a common objective.
How could secular people who laud homesexuality, "science" (they think global warming is science, anyway), equality for women, and offensive art and speech ever have common objectives with religious fanatics who stone homosexuals; reject our modern world; keep women illiterate, pregnant, and indoors; and go berserk over every word or image that even remotely offends them?
How, indeed. Perhaps somebody's self image isn't as accurate as they like to think.
I welcome France back into the Western alliance where they belong. Ultimately, this our common fight. I'm not ignoring France's unwillingness to fight in Iraq and even their caution in Afghanistan, but future cooperation is far more likely.
