IN THE MAIL: A copy of John J. Miller & Mark Molesky’s new book, Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America’s Disastrous Relationship with France. Somebody send the Kerry campaign a copy!

On the other hand, it’s not always bad, as InstaPundit’s Afghanistan correspondent, Major John Tammes, reports:

As I came into our HQ building, I saw one of our NCOs, CSM Mark Bowman, in the hallway. I asked him what was going on and he related a wonderful example of an alliance in action. A group of French soldiers had come to our base for a couple of days [they are collecting heavy weapons from a local militia commander who is turning them into the central government] and were trying to coordinate support. CSM Bowman spoke to the French Sergeant Major, but had a rough time understanding him. CSM Bowman told the Frenchman it was too bad they could not talk in German, as he knew that tongue fairly well. The French Sergeant Major turned to one of his soldiers and instructed him to finish the conversation – which they did, in fairly comfortably paced German. The French soldier had been a member of the Franco-German Brigade, and CSM Bowman had spent many years in Germany with the Armored Cavalry. So an American and a Frenchman conversed in German about helping an Afghan.

Successful multilateralism in action!