That’s more like it. The statement in the OP, “and the usual no brainer “you’d all be speaking German if it wasn’t for us” attitude.” made me see red, but I’m grateful for your clearing up the confusion. FWIW, I agree with most of the rest of your post–America needs to work with other nations and not treat them as speed bumps in its imperial path.
I disagree woth your stance on inspections; IMO they are an utter failure, but we can agree to disagree.
I think that guy from the Onion this week said it best–“When even GERMANY doesn’t want to fight, take the fucking hint, huh?”
What do you expect from the NY Post? Bombing campaigns and a protracted groundwar would sell much more papers than UN inspections.
And somebody whap this columnist over the head with a history book. America didn’t exactly swoop in to save all of Europe from the scourge of Hitler. Sure we helped, but I think there’s a couple million Russians who had quite a nice hand in the Allied victory as well, for starters.
And IMO they do work, but for another serendipitous reason: the more inspections there are, the more Sadam will have to hide his WMD (if he has them) and the capacity to make them. This means that it will be HARDER for Iraqi troops to get a hold of them when the real shooting starts.
And when the shooting starts, there will be mad (and easy to detect) reckless dashes by the Iraqis to get those weapons on line, meaning that there will be yet another chance to detect and bomb the locations of those weapons.
I think that Bush is being reckless for not seeing the diplomatic and military opportunities of giving more time for inspections (or more inspectors).
Haha, well it’s amusing that people are taking a New York Post article seriously. I mean, it is frightening when you ride the subway and see the number of people actually reading it, but everyone with any sense sees the cover of the Post and just laughs hysterically. On any given day their cover is comical. The suggestion that the Daily News is any better is also pretty funny.
I mean the post had a headline “Bloomburg Whack’s the city budget” and “Whack” was in like a 72 point font. The girl I was dating at the time and I just busted out laughing when we saw that. The Post is ridiculous. We should all be here cracking up at it’s pompousity.
As for American view of France. I am glad that France, Germany, Belgium and Russia are taking a stand against the US hegemony. Let’s get rid of US hegemony for the benefit of all.
However, I do agree with the sentiment that the UN is obsolete. Any international organization that views dictatorships as equal members with democracies is pretty much useless. When Libya can head the committee on human rights, and Iraq can head up the committee on disarmament, well you know there’s something seriously wrong with the organization.
Erek
Give a man a dollar and he eats for a meal, teach a man to print a dollar and he eats for a lifetime.
Steve Dunleavy exists to spark fires, and he succeeds. Reading his stuff once is sufficient.
Regarding the French (and German) foreign policy vis a vis Iraq, here’s another, more thoughtful, articulate point of view from Sen. John McCain, a reprint of the speech he gave last Saturday at the Munich Conference on Security Policy:
Mr Dunleavy’s ranting and raving and tears in the cemetery are caused by he’s created a straw man.
The debt of gratitude Europeans owe to the US will never die.
But gratitude for sacrifices made more than 50 years ago, and capitulation for things being done today, are very different things.
Exactly how long is the payback, in Mr Dunleavy’s mind. How long are we Europeans expected to say “yes” whenever the US wants to do something we oppose heartily?
Is he the same with grudges, I wonder?
I think of A Fish called Wanda.
London Calling wrote:
Second? Did you mean twentieth?
I met Steve Dunleavy over drinks a while ago. You people do realize he is a Murdoch-imported Aussie, don’t you?
I had no idea. That makes him even more of a putz IMO.
It would be rather interesting to find Steve Dunleavy in a pub in Dublin. Rather interesting indeed…
I read the NY Post every day. I love the Post. But Steve Dunleavy is an asshole, and I almost never read his column. I thought this particular series was especially awful.
Yojimbo Thank you
december – Actually, you can’t even speak for your own country. Just for a change, you’re misrepresenting the facts… You posted:
“ …majority of Americans favor the use of force to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein even without United Nations support”.
… but that article says:
“A majority of respondents, 57 percent, said they would support an allied attack against Iraq even over objections of the United Nations …”
Putting aside the question of the difference between “ousting” (your cliché) and an “attack” (the poll question characterization), it would seem the poll is saying 57% of Americans would support action of some unspecified nature if the UK was involved in those attacks – we can argue of the military contribution of others but really, at this stage, it’s about the UK’s ‘allied’ contribution.
And, in any event, I don’t believe Tony Blair can lend military support – perhaps beyond some aircraft – without a second Resolution so the entire question becomes academic – a pointless exercise, unless someone somewhere specifically wanted to create the illusionary impression so as to further a greater goal.
Anyway, it’s all a rather a long way from your “….use of force to oust …”
Finally, we both know that the perception of France as being “opposing the use of force against Iraq (your quote) is nonsense. The position of France, is as I stated above; more time, more inspectors, no attack without a second Resolution.
Nonetheless, one has to think support for action of any kind is growing in the US. Many have tried to put this entire Iraqi issue in historical terms, I’m not overly interested in that but it is interesting (to me) that support for this cause appears to be firmer than did (AFAIK) support for US involvement in WW2 at any time prior to Pearl Harbor, at least as far as the president was concerned (polls being less accurate or regular way back when).
On that basis, I find myself wondering how successful has been this administration whipping up the mob via the tabloid media ….
The point is, of course, that the “You’d all be speaking German” attitude has fuck all to do with this debate. Dunleavy is an ass for bringing it up, suggesting it be a good stick to beat the French over the head with. It’s no secret on these boards that I have a great admiration for the Liberators, Americans, Canadians, Russians, and Brits alike. But that doesn’t mean that I have to blindly follow the US in every policy decision it makes, almost 60 years down the line.
And there’s another significant difference here. Hitler rose to power because of the backing of his own people. Now, who helped Saddam Hussein in the saddle again?
Certainly not the population of Iraq, gobear. Saddam has now become a problem of global scale, whereas he was initially used as a peon for US interests alone.
Quite a different scenario from a dictator conquering half an unwilling continent, I’d say.
Anyone seen today’s front page? A minor classic.
My boss is probably the most leftist guy I know, and even he loves the Post. It’s not a paper, it’s a humor publication! Sometimes it’s better than the Onion.
I think I’m torn between picking my all-time favorite NY Post moment. It’s either the 20+ pages they did on John Gotti the day after they died, or the story about Israel killing a PLO leader. The one with the banner headline “BULLSEYE!” and somewhere in maybe the 20th paragraph of the story they mentioned that about a dozen children also died as a result of the bombing. Or heck, maybe it’s even the whole page of indignant letters they published about the networks not televising one of Bush’s prime-time speeches, even though the Bush administration itself told the networks there wasn’t really any reason to.
Today’s front page was a new low for the Post. It looked like something a tabloid would put on the cover. The headline is “UN Meets: Weasels to Hear New Iraq Evidence”. Two of the UN delegates (Germany and France, who oppose the US push for war) have weasel heads superimposed on their bodies.
I miss the good old days of “Headless Man Found in Topless Bar” 
I saved the front page for posterity’s sake (it’s a .gif file alternating between the front page and back page; looks like Jeter’s pissed at Steinbrenner too hehe):
Well, yeah. The Post is basically a well-circulated tabloid.