October 29, 2004

FEAR LEVELS PEAKING

A certain European former power is frightened:

French officials and politicians are worrying about the pending outcome of next week's U.S. presidential elections, which they fear President George W. Bush could win, prolonging the standoff with France over Iraq and the Middle East crisis.

French fear is almost universal as the latest official polls show that 85 percent of the French support Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry.

"French fear is almost universal." There's a line you could drop into any story from the past 50 years. The chances of Bush winning may have increased lately, due to the Kerry camp's inept handling of the New York Times' "tons of explosives" story; Ralph Peters summarises developments.

UPDATE. Africa also wants Kerry to win, although Africa doesn’t know who Kerry is:

"If Africa was to vote, Kerry would get a landslide," said Robert Kabushenga, a political analyst in Uganda, told Reuters.

"All public opinion surveys show the publics of the world don't know Kerry but they don't like Bush. Someone sitting in Chad doesn't know who Kerry is, but he sure knows who Bush is," said John Stremlau, a professor of international relations at Johannesburg's Witwatersrand University ...

Africa roots for Kerry. Few premiers are so undiplomatic as to say it publicly but commentators and ordinary people across the continent are loud and proud in voicing support for the Democrat.

It is not that they know or like him. Besides promising a more robust challenge to Sudanese abuses in Darfur Kerry has said little about Africa. Nor are they especially impressed by his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, romanticising her upbringing in Mozambique and South Africa. It is enough that Kerry is not Bush.

This public service announcement brought to you by Rory Carroll of The Guardian.

Posted by Tim Blair at October 29, 2004 03:36 AM
Comments

"French fear is almost universal." There's a line you could drop into any story from the past 50 years.

Fifty only takes you back to 1954. Seventy or eighty is probably more accurate.

Posted by: Robert Crawford at October 29, 2004 at 03:42 AM

'Seventy or eighty is probably more accurate'

Fear of the Germans existed from pre 1870 to 1945, fear of the Russians from then on until the 1990s, and now this, so well over eighty years. If you include the times they feared the British, Spanish and Dutch you would add on over two hundred years.

Posted by: Ral at October 29, 2004 at 03:55 AM

I don't know about seventy or eighty, Robert...the Franco-Prussian War was more than 130 years ago, and you probably don't need two guesses to figure out who won that one.

Posted by: Sean M. at October 29, 2004 at 03:56 AM

You can also drop the phrase "...Kerry camp's inept handling of [insert subject]" into any story on this election.

Posted by: The Real JeffS at October 29, 2004 at 04:04 AM

Yeah, I should have said "seventy or eighty at least".

Posted by: Robert Crawford at October 29, 2004 at 04:12 AM

I know for a fact that they were sweatin out the arrival of the Mongols in 1242; so let's just make it a nice cool millenium.

P.S. Half the fun of being American these days is pissing off the Europeans. I can't wait till the next time it hits 100 degrees over there and half of them perish, or should I say surrender. We'll need another D-Day operation where we carry air conditioners up the beaches. We can call it AC-Day.

Posted by: Darwin Finch at October 29, 2004 at 04:14 AM

Wow - no wonder Idi Amin kept winning reelection.

Posted by: Darwin Finch at October 29, 2004 at 04:19 AM

Half the fun of being American these days is pissing off the Europeans. I can't wait till the next time it hits 100 degrees over there and half of them perish, or should I say surrender. We'll need another D-Day operation where we carry air conditioners up the beaches. We can call it AC-Day

As a fellow American, I whole-heartedly agree.

Posted by: ccs178 (Chris) at October 29, 2004 at 04:20 AM

I thought this was hilarious too:
"Even if Bush wins, the United States will have to change its foreign policy in view of its growing isolation," Boniface said.

Right. Expect Bush to reverse course on every foreign policy initiative, because, you know, no other countries want to buy our weapons/goods/entertainment, or sell us things, or invest in our economy, or ask us for a loan, or accept monetary aid, because we're so isolated.

Posted by: Rob at October 29, 2004 at 04:33 AM

"We can call it AC-Day"

Is that what lefties mean when they predict American action will have a chilling effect?

Posted by: Matt Moore at October 29, 2004 at 04:50 AM

"French fear is almost universal."

LOL- I almost squirted Coca-Cola out of my nose!

Posted by: spitfire9 at October 29, 2004 at 05:19 AM

I could almost feel sorry for the French. They produce nothing that the world wants anymore. French is fading as a world language, their wines are being outdone in other countries, and no sane woman would ever wear their ridiculous Paris rags. The vaunted French diplomacy is nothing more than sleazy, under-the-table deals with murderous tyrants. They are the butt of jokes everywhere, and trusted nowhere.

I could almost feel sorry for the French.

But I don't.

Posted by: Rebecca at October 29, 2004 at 06:41 AM

Where's France?

Posted by: EddieP at October 29, 2004 at 07:12 AM

France and Africa are important to this election how...?

Posted by: Mikey at October 29, 2004 at 07:41 AM

Apparently none of the Africans quoted knows that President Bush initiated by far the largest grants to Africa to fight AIDS anyone ever has. This gained him political points with exactly no one-he did it because he thought it the right thing to do.

Also, that Rory dude: from his picture he looks like the very definition of a wanker.

Posted by: DWAYNE from KANSAS at October 29, 2004 at 09:17 AM

Even if Bush wins, the United States will have to change its foreign policy in view of its growing isolation

Exactly who is isolated here, Pierre? I seem to count more countries of consequence on our side of the fence than yours.

Corrupt dictatorships don't count on principle. Nations that can't project military power outside their own red light districts don't count either. That means the French have the following countries of consequence on their side:


Wait, I'm thinking.

OK, I give up.

Posted by: R C Dean at October 29, 2004 at 09:56 AM

Mais, zut alors, monsieur! To be ah-solated frome la France eez to be ah-solated from zee world. Wat aylse eez zayre but la France, after all? Le Pollandaise? L'Angleterre? L'Australie?? Foh! Eet eez to laff.

Posted by: Andrea Harris at October 29, 2004 at 11:05 AM

President George W. Bush could win, prolonging the standoff with France over Iraq and the Middle East crisis.

Don't you just love the underlying assumption that the standoff is entirely Bush's fault, and that the U.S. is the country that needs to change? Wouldn't be a French sentiment if it included some introspection and self-criticism, I guess.

Posted by: PW at October 29, 2004 at 11:44 AM

Public Announcement

French security authorities today raised the French Terror alert status from SURRENDER to COLABORATE. This came following the announcement that Arrafat was going to be treated in France for a medical condition.

In other news:

A Whitehouse spokesperson noted the opportunity for France to redeem itself with Arrafat being there for medical treatment. Lots of oldies died in that heatwave last summer, and it is a pretty warm Autumn.

Posted by: Razor at October 29, 2004 at 12:20 PM

President George W. Bush could win, prolonging the standoff with France over Iraq and the Middle East crisis.

That would be the standoff where France blocked the liberation of Iraq? Whoops.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at October 29, 2004 at 01:30 PM

I hear that the French fear soap also.

Posted by: Harry in Atlanta at October 29, 2004 at 01:42 PM

If Bush wins France will surrender within minutes. Actually, France will surrender within minutes no matter what the outcome.

Posted by: Jonny at October 29, 2004 at 03:53 PM

DWAYNE from KANSAS-

Yeah, absolutely. This is the thanks he gets from Africa?

You know, considering that there seems to be an inverse relationship between the amount of aid we send people and how much they like us, perhaps it would be best for everyone if we cut aid to Africa completely.
Maybe if we *really* wanted them to like us, we could even go a few steps further. I propose the following: send troops into a few countries. Send them on wild goose-chases while limiting them by bizzare rules of engagement so that they aren't effective. Have them dither around for a bit, and maybe do prostitution for food, that sort of thing. Maybe even stand by and watch thousands of Africans get murdered by their fellows. Then we could leave. They'd love us, just like they love the French, or Clinton! It'll be great.

Posted by: Flakbait at October 30, 2004 at 12:28 AM

Every single time the truth is brought home: money won't buy you love.

Posted by: Andrea Harris at October 30, 2004 at 01:30 PM

As an American of French (Cajun) descent, I must say I think we held our own during Caesar's Gallic wars. Thereafter, the French with any brains and balls removed, and what's left is, well, what's left.
My family arrived in Louisiana in 1755 after being forcibly evicted from Acadia by the British. My grandfather and my uncle returned to France, in 1918 and 1944, respectively, and shed blood to liberate these ungrateful bastards. To his dying day (in 1974), my grandfather, a veteran of the Meuse-Argonne offensive, had nothing good to say about the French.
Sadly, my uncle now suffers from Alzheimer's, and recently told me that he had been wounded in France a few days ago.
Note to self: I must remember to apply to the governments of Italy and Britain for reparations, for the suffering they caused my people. Hell, if it works for other minorities, it should work for us coonasses, ne c 'est pas?

Posted by: alfadog at October 31, 2004 at 08:29 AM