France is not our friend.
It can be stated no simpler than that. For as long as I can remember, despite claiming to be our ally, France has nevertheless acted in a publicly hostile way towards the United States. Reminding them of the thousands of Americans, who twice in the last century shed blood and died on French battlefields in order to keep France free, only seems to embolden their resentment. It’s as if for a Frenchman to recollect that his nation had to have its ass pulled out of the fire twice because of its own incompetence is akin to claiming that he’s child molester or something.
Experts familiar with those, as the National Review’s Jonah Goldberg so eloquently put it, “cheese-eating surrender monkeys,” say that this continued French predilection for opposing us is merely their way of demanding the respect that they believe they are entitled. Entitled would seem to hit the mark here, since they certainly haven’t done anything to earn anyone’s respect. Of course, they would probably bring up their assistance to us in the Revolutionary War . . . as if World War I and II never happened.
Certainly, if the French don’t believe there should be a war in Iraq, I can respect that. Obviously, they aren’t alone or in the minority on that position. However, where I draw the line is in their public statements not only in opposing the US position, but also in stating that they will actively work against us. A friend doesn’t do that. A friend sits down with you and discusses or argues it with you – in private, not on TV. A friend doesn’t tell the whole world that they’re going to vote against you in the UN Security Council. Of course, how in the hell a nation that surrendered in World War II got a permanent seat on the Security Council is another question.
We should recognize this new reality by severing any defense agreements with France and calling them what they are – an adversary. They clearly hate our guts and the feeling is certainly mutual with many Americans. It’s time to end the relevance subsidy we’ve given them for over fifty years so they can finally descend into the irrelevancy that they have so richly earned.
Scott Wacholtz is a senior majoring in Computer Science.