Just when we were starting to like France again, along comes the self-indulgent lifestyle of Sarkozy followed by this pompous, bourgeois bilge from his foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, who informs us the “magic is over” for the US. And after the Academy gave an award to the empty-headed actress who performed in that tedious, banal movie about Piaf. What ungrateful… dare I say it?… frogs!
PJ Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that PJ Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. Please note that comments are reviewed by the editorial staff and may not be posted immediately. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pjmedia.com.
Dear Mr. Koucher
The challenges may be daunting, he said, noting for instance that the world had decided to act to curb the AIDS epidemic, but asking, “Can we take charge of all the other diseases? I’m not sure.”
meet Mr. Geldof
And I have always wondered why it was never told properly to the American people, who were paying for it. It was, for example, Bush who initiated the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with cross-party support led by Senators John Kerry and Bill Frist. In 2003, only 50,000 Africans were on HIV antiretroviral drugs, and they had to pay for their own medicine. Today, 1.3 million are receiving medicines free of charge. The U.S. also contributes one-third of the money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which treats another 1.5 million. It contributes 50% of all food aid (though some critics find the mechanism of contribution controversial). On a seven-day trip through Africa, Bush announced a fantastic new $350 million fund for other neglected tropical diseases that can be easily eradicated; a program to distribute 5.2 million mosquito nets to Tanzanian kids; and contracts worth around $1.2 billion in Tanzania and Ghana from the Millennium Challenge Account, another initiative of the Bush Administration.
So Mr. Minister, the fight against AIDS is case of the Coalition of the Willing. France’s efforts are underwhelming. BTW the bloom has been off France’s rose for quite some time.
Or as the next President once quipped: “You know, the French remind me a little bit of an aging actress of the 1940s who was still trying to dine out on her looks but doesn’t have the face for it.” — John McCain
Ooops. Kouchner (not Koucher). Given the quality of thinking exhibited in his quotes, I guess I couldn’t tell the difference from Ashton.
Sarkozy’s self-indulgent? For marrying a beautiful woman, a couple years after his first wife had an affair?
Iraq, and our opposition to Iran, and support of the multicultural Israel is our forth war in a hundred years to defend Europe. Each time we do more and they do less.
Hearing from Europeans is like listening to third generation public housing residents complain about how they have been mis-treated.
I wonder how long the center, us, can hold. Now I know how that fwench king felt when he said that after him came the deluge, only this time it’s going to be instant ovens over major European cities. Oddly the missles will be sixty year old copies of improved German V2s.
I’m really looking for luck here in the future.
I like the way Kissinger puts it: France still hasn’t completely come to terms with Waterloo. French exceptionalism is totally undermined by the existence and power of America. Whichever party runs it, they’ve been trying to unseat us for decades. Until recently, they’ve always worked to create patchwork alliances of third-world countries that they can lead– but the sad realities of France’s position means they never really succeeded. With the EU, they actually have a shot; it just isn’t clear that they will benefit from this.
Kouchner’s comments should be taken as they were intended. Even under Sarkozy, France’s anti-American inclination is simply too entrenched to overcome. I don’t doubt that he’s as good as it gets over there, but we need to remember that it isn’t (and certainly won’t stay) all that good.
Remember the flack Rumsfeld got for referring to them that did not support us in Iraq “old Europe”?
This fella refers to the US in essentially similar manner and he is praised.
Some diplomat.
You continue to amuse me, Markus. Of course I couldn’t give less of a damn about Sarko’s private life (except normal curiosity, obviously). What Sarko did wrong, squandering immense popularity after his election, is to go public with an affair which seemed to be taking much mre of his time than governing the state and instituting all the new ideas he had been talking about. The French public got livid – and with some justification.
I assumed you would know that’s what I was talking about. My bad, I suppose.
Ah, the French are just projecting onto us what happened to them 100 years ago. Once the world’s leading engineering and scientific power, and world-class in military, commerce, and government, they’ve decayed so far that they’re now just a milepost for Poland to pass any day now.
They figure if it could happen to them, it’s bound to happen to America.
They’re as wrong about that as they were about the design of the Char B tank.
“Dude, where’s my diplomacy?” (h/t Barry Dauphin)
Bernie K. apparently has no clue. But we’re the cretins, right?
Why are you so worked up with the French minister’s comment? You are suffering from the same French syndrome: taking them too seriously. Just remember, the number of people who voted for GWB in 2004 was greater than the number of people residing in France.
Kouchner is not, from other statements, anti-American philosophically. What “magic” he refers to is mysterious. Perhaps this was the magic that gave us the Iranian Revolution or Reykjavik or numberless other disasters/triumphs. Whatev, it is a jejune expression telling us nothing. But Kouchner is, by Euro and French standards, sound on the Iraq war and sounder on Afghanistan. His yearnings for, um, hope and change are platitudes merely; let’s not go batshite over a regurged cliche or three….
In the forty-two years I’ve been alive, and for years previously, there have been many critics who have said the USA’s best days were behind her and that she was fading out, to be replaced by a new power. And the USA has buried each and everyone of those proposed replacements.
Based on the historical odds, I do not fear what M. Kouchner says.