IT'S LENT, LET'S RECALL FRANCE'S SINS (via Atlantic Blog):

'Old Europe' and Sudan's jihad (Boston Globe, 3/17/2003)

For the past 20 years, the regime in Khartoum has bombed, starved, and enslaved black Southern Sudanese with impunity in an effort to subject them to Islamic rule. As a result, over two million black non-Muslims have perished. A further five million have been driven off their land.

Sudanese slaves -- mainly women and children -- are routinely beaten, raped, genitally mutilated, forced to convert to Islam and racially abused.... Credible estimates of the number of Sudan's slaves range from tens of thousands to over 200,000....

France provided Khartoum with military intelligence for the prosecution of the jihad, while French and German helicopters have been used for ethnic cleansing in southern Sudan's oil fields. Driving black, non-Muslims out of their homes creates greater security for the investments of oil firms like Total Fina (France/Belgium) and the German engineering giant Mannesmann....

France and Germany ... persuaded the UN Commission on Human Rights to censor any use of the word "slavery" from official documents on Sudan and replace it with the euphemism "abduction" -- a lesser offense.

It is rarely noted that although Europe and the United States are the home of the West, Europe is also the home of the anti-West. France, in particular, has long been the leading source of anti-Western ideas. The most murderous tyrannical ideologies -- from Marxism to Fanonism to Pol Potism to Khomeinism -- were born and nurtured in Paris. France spawned the first centralized nation state in the 1600s, and has proceeded from one powerful central government to another. Many French, including Dominique de Villepin and Jacques Chirac, still regard the Napoleonic era as one of "greatness."

The Cold War ended in the defeat of the Soviet Union, but the conflict between Western and anti-Western values continues. It appears that France can be counted upon to champion tyranny, murder, and slavery, in opposition to U.S.-championed values such as freedom, nonviolence, and cooperation.

I understand that for advice on how to prosecute this conflict, President Bush has turned to Dave Barry.

MORE (via Porphyrogenitus):

EU economic outlook 'grim without reform' (Financial Times, 3/17/2003)

European business leaders will on Monday warn that the economic outlook will continue to be "unremittingly grim" unless EU leaders finally live up to their rhetoric on reform.

One nice thing about conflict with France: time is on our side.

Posted by Paul Jaminet at March 17, 2003 9:15 PM