AMIR TAHERI writes on the French philosophy for dealing with Arab nations. What it lacks in effectiveness, it makes up in amorality. And it seems a bit, well, racist:

The French way is based on what is known in Paris as “France’s Arab policy” (La politique Arabe de la France).

Devised by the late General De Gaulle in the early 1960s , this is based on three assumptions.

The first is that it is natural for Arabs to be ruled by a “strongman.”

The second is that the Arab “strongman” has no particular principles apart from a keen desire to stay alive and in power.

The third is that, if handled intelligently, the Arab “strongman” could be useful to the West.

Kind of puts those criticisms of U.S. policy into perspective, doesn’t it?

UPDATE: Reader Mostafa Sabet writes:

I for one welcome this, maybe it’s a historical bias that I was born with (though my views on Israel prove to myself that I’m not blinded by this), but I have always felt that following the French leads to nothing but trouble. We should have learned this after Algeria and Vietnam. As far as I am concerned, one would be hard-pressed to find a more xenophobic, racist and cowardly state that deserves being marginalized more than the French. One of the unfortunate consequences of the Cold War is that the French have weapons of mass destruction. I have this bizzare, gut-feeling that our next “Great War” (in the pejorative sense) will involve the French as the enemy. . . .

I feel if we must disarm a regime, like Iraq, the only army or group that should use American armaments should be Americans and our close democratic allies, rather than internal dissenters. More often than not, these groups are just as thuggish as the regimes we seek to overthrow and given time we will need to remove them at a later date.

War with France? [Insert obligatory surrender joke of your choice here.] I rather doubt it, but you never know.