And the position is not marching westward with their hands raised in surrender. Instead, I am talking about their indefensible position regarding Turkey. This op-ed in the Telegraph nails it:
What is sickening about French behaviour is not so much that they genuinely intend to deprive Turkey, a vital Nato ally, of the Patriot missiles. It is not as though they really mean to hold up the war until the desert is so scorching that our boys’ boots melt within minutes.
What is so cynical, and so French, is that they know they won’t push their position to its logical conclusion. They know that America and Britain are so overwhelmingly committed to removing Saddam Hussein from power that no other outcome is possible. They know that they will join up in the end, and in their hearts they accept that the world would be a better place without him.
And that means that they know that they have a diplomatic free hit. They can posture, and preen, and strike neo-Gaullist attitudes, safe in the knowledge that they will never have to make sense of their policy, or justify it to posterity. They have simply decided to play to the gallery of public opinion.
I was thinking of creating a special category for the French, but all I could come up with was ‘The God-Damned French.” If I can think of something more clever, I might use it.
Link via the Blogfather
Please note that all use of the term France and the French is to be interpreted solely as referring to the French government and their irritating policies, and not the idiot civilians who keep electing these jerks. That didn’t come out as gracious as I meant it to sound.