>From David Frum's Blog:
I�m in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but thanks to the
miracle of modern satellite technology, I was able to
join yesterday in a French television program that
pitted former French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine
against a line-up of North American sparring partners.
Vedrine too was in his own way highly impressive:
poised, well-spoken, and beguilingly frank about his
hostility to the United States. The
book he cowrote a couple of years back with Dominique
Moisi is full of unconvincing humbug about human
rights and France�s special symbolic significance in
the world. On television, Vedrine dispenses with all
the pretense and gets straight to the point: French
ambition, resentment, and envy of the United States.
I couldn�t take notes during the conversation and the
transcript is not yet posted to Nexis, if it ever will
be, so I�ll have to recall Vedrine�s words from
memory. I was struck by one thing above all � how
little he talked about Iraq, the show�s purported
subject. Neither Saddam Hussein�s weapons of mass
destruction nor Saddam�s cruelty and tyranny
interested Vedrine much. What fascinated him instead
was the United States � and the need, as he repeatedly
said, for the nations of the world to join together to
contain and control it. In his press conference last
week, President Bush described France as a �friend.�
Vedrine spoke about the United States in the way that
states more typically speak of their enemies.
Vedrine�s words were illustrated by three or four
video clips intended to offer the French television
viewer some context. One clip, on the evolution of
American power, started with some quick shots of D-Day
and the proceeded through B-52s dropping bombs on
Vietnamese rice paddies, weeping Vietnamese widows and
orphans, vast sheets of dollars spitting out of the
presses of the Mint, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse,
McDonald�s arches, and President Bush addressing
Congress on September 20. Another, on American
religion, showed the Christian Coalition, Pat
Robertson, and elderly white people in absurd hats
proudly discussing their disdain for Muslims. It was
rather as if an American TV show produced a video clip
about France that began with Marshall Petain, cut to
scenes of torture from the Battle of Algiers, a
reeking pissoir, politicians accepting bribes, and
rioting truck drivers smashing windows to protest
France�s hopeless inability to compete on world
markets.
After an hour of this, I made a personal vow: Never,
ever again will I permit anyone to disparage in my
hearing Americans� ignorance of the rest of the world.
Compared to what the French are getting from their
media, Americans are bloody Baedekers.
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John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tonight I have a message for the brave and oppressed people of Iraq:
Your enemy is not surrounding your country � your enemy is ruling your
country. And the day he and his regime are removed from power will be
the day of your liberation." -George W. Bush 1/29/03
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