MAKE THAT FROGHAMMER:

Tripe a la Mode (Charles Krauthammer, March 12, 2004, Townhall)

Look. I know it is shooting French in a barrel. But when yet another insufferable penseur -- first Chirac, then de Villepin, now the editor of Le Monde -- starts lecturing Americans on how they ought to conduct themselves in the world, the rules of decorum are suspended.

In an article in The Wall Street Journal, Jean-Marie Colombani, who wrote the famous Sept. 12, 2001, Le Monde editorial titled ``We are all Americans,'' gives us the usual more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger lament about America's sins: We loved you on Sept. 11. We were all with you in Afghanistan. But, oh, what have you done in Iraq?

This requires some parsing. We loved you on Sept. 11 means: We like Americans when they are victims, on their knees and bleeding. We just don't like it when they get off the floor -- without checking with us first.

Colombani glories in Europe's post-Sept. 11 ``solidarity'' with America: "Let us remember here the involvement of French and German soldiers, among other European nationalities, in the operations launched in Afghanistan to ... free the Afghans.''

Come again? The French arrived in Mazar-e Sharif after it fell -- or as military analyst Jay Leno put it, ``to serve as advisers to the Taliban on how to surrender properly.'' Afghanistan was liberated by America acting practically unilaterally, with an even smaller coalition than that in Iraq -- Britain and Australia, with the rest of the world holding America's coat.

But then came Iraq. "The problem was not so much the war itself, but the fact that it was launched without U.N. approval,'' Colombani explains.

Are We Still 'All American'?: If you want sympathy from France, just elect John Kerry. (JEAN-MARIE COLOMBANI, March 13, 2004, Wall Street Journal)

If we are not yet estranged, we owe it to two men, two concepts that have allowed the United States and Europe, whatever the misfortunes, to remain, all-in-all, bound together for 50 years. They are Lord Keynes and George Kennan. One inspired the West's development policies, the other its "containment" strategy. The first policy allowed progress and wealth; the second finally triumphed over the Soviet empire.

Today, "containment" has given way to "pre-emptive" war; and the logic of development and free-trade threatens to be replaced by a return of protectionism. In our interdependent and already multipolar world, the two main axes being wielded by Mr. Bush (as opposed to his father) are therefore a threat to the very foundation of the historical alliance between the U.S. and Europe. This is why John Kerry is, a priori, perceived with so much sympathy. He personifies the promise of an America that will get back on track--more just, more cohesive, more generous. In brief, less "unilateral." So that we can still all remain "American" in years to come.

Can John Kerry really afford these endorsements?

MORE:

Europe's candidate for president: Why Europeans are rooting for John Kerry (Charlemagne, Mar 4th 2004, The Economist)

AS JOHN KERRY girds himself for the presidential fight, he is being cheered on from over the water. A picture of the junior senator from Massachusetts recently adorned the cover of Le Nouvel Observateur, a left-wing French magazine, under the title “The man who can beat Bush”. Since, according to a recent poll, only 6% of Europeans strongly approve of George Bush's handling of foreign policy, that is recommendation enough.

But Mr Kerry also has family ties that make him so beguiling to Europeans. His grandfather, it transpires, came from a tiny Czech village. His first cousin, Brice Lalonde, served as environment minister in a French Socialist government in 1988-92. Mr Lalonde told the French press that he recently saw his cousin, and talked fondly of shared childhood holidays in Brittany. He commented in Libération that “our mothers were sisters. But I don't want to damage him, because you know that at the moment it is better not to appear too French in the United States.”

Quite so. At a recent Washington breakfast, Tom DeLay, the Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives, greeted guests with the words: “Good morning, or bonjour as John Kerry would say.” The senator is indeed reportedly fluent in French, and is even said to have chatted up Teresa Heinz, now his wife, in the language. He can also trot out phrases in other European languages. The correspondent for Stern, a German magazine, noted approvingly that Mr Kerry had not only expressed deep concern to him about the state of American-European relations, but done it in German, saying: “I am really concerned. Seien Sie sicher.”

The flattering effect that this has on Europeans should not be underestimated. It grates deeply that Mr Bush appears neither to know nor to care much about the old continent. By contrast Mr Kerry, who went to a Swiss boarding-school while his father was a diplomat in Berlin, is seen as a throwback to a more sophisticated, Europhile era in which the American elite naturally looked across the Atlantic. As Stern rhapsodised to its readers, “Bush quotes the Bible, Kerry Pablo Neruda. Bush likes local novels, Kerry loves Shakespeare. While Bush doesn't read the newspaper and is proud of it, Kerry reads Le Monde.”

Kerry would be choice of terrorists (UPI, 3/12/04)

Asked, "Who do you think the terrorists would prefer to have as president," the independent poll found that 60 percent said Kerry while 25 percent said Bush.

The poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, also found that 51 percent of those surveyed thought Bush would win the 2004 election against 39 percent who said Kerry.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 13, 2004 7:00 AM