Adieu Bush, Adieu Cheney…
Editorials - Twitter this! November 14th, 2008
In the waning days of the second Bush / Cheney presidency, I can barely contain the seething anger that rises in me. This is not a liberal rant; this is not a left-wing diatribe nor is it a politically motivated article. This statement is what I want on the record before political amnesia settles in.
To President Bush and Vice President Cheney,
In the name of all French Expatriates across America, temporary migrants or permanent residents, in the name of Americans of French extraction, be they recent or distant, may they be Cajuns, may they be from Maine, Vermont or Michigan, I want to tell you how much you hurt and damaged the fabric of Franco-American relations, how much you made our lives difficult and painful. May your Anti-French political side-show go down in history as a vicious, petty and as a spiteful act of backstabbing cowardice.
May all Americans remember what you did, not so much in respect to our citizenship or culture, but how it speaks volumes about how you treated dissent, opinion and opposition
When you and your administration pushed the truth aside to embark upon the folly that was the Iraq war, opposition from the French Government became your excuse to operate a systematic, top down Anti-French policy from within your own office; aimed not only at French interests, but against all things Gallic be they our culture, our language and our people.
Five years of Anti-French slander and vilification was thrust upon us by you direct from the White House, from your administration †, your members of Congress ‡, from your governors * and from your lackeys in the media ¶.
May all Americans and Franco-Americans alike, remember what you did. Not so much in respect to our citizenship or culture, but how it speaks volumes about how you trampled on dissent, opinion and opposition: true constitutional freedoms you swore to uphold one cold morning of January 2000.
We shall neither forgive nor forget…
Marc St Aubin du Cormier
† Richard Perle, Condoleeza, Rice, Donald Rumsfled, Paul Wolfowitz, Jed Babbin
‡ Roy Blunt, Ginny Brown-Waite, Tom Delay, Jack Kingston, Dennis Hastert, Peter King, Bob Ney, Walter Jones, Jim Saxton
* Mike Foster, Bill Owens
¶ Fred Barnes, Ann Coulter, Tucker Carlson, David Denby, Gordon Dillow, Steve Dunleavy, Tomas Friedman, David Frum, Frank Gaffney, John J. Miller, Richard Chesnoff, Kenneth Timmerman, Denis Boyles, Bill Gertz, Jonah Goldberg, Christopher Hitchens, Don Imus, Bill Kristol, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Ron Marr, Dick Morris, Ralph Peters, Gary Schneider, Michael Smerconish, George Will …
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November 28th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
The comment section is just replete with anti-French garbage.
November 28th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Miquelon,
Anti-French comments coming from parochial commenters, whatever their political or cultural colour are as you say garbage and might I repeat, pure, unadulterated crap!
They’re thinking and talking from thei backsides.
November 29th, 2008 at 4:53 am
I just wrote a new entry on the site.
Just when you think it dies down, French Bashing pops up somewhere else. It’s just like whack-a-mole.
November 29th, 2008 at 7:16 am
“..This is not a liberal rant; this is not a left-wing diatribe nor is it a politically motivated article…”
Good thing you mentioned that…because it had all the trappings of it…
December 1st, 2008 at 3:22 am
So: What to do?
First, understand that if your friends like you, that’s a positive for French-American relations. Public opinion is just that. If we are the fourth largest ethnic group in the country, individually we count a lot.
Second, understand that America suffers from Attention Deficit Syndrome: It gets it’s messages and knowledge in sound bites. Unfortunately, lots of kids have learned to hate the French. It’s going to take positive feedback, not bitter words, to change things, and you should aim at youth, because as we all know, adults believe what they believe, period.
Third, time for the French government to get off its ass and conduct a publicity campaign here. There is a Catholic modesty thing going on in French PR efforts: Americans are just supposed to know that they should include French consciousness, culture, and cuisine in their lives. Why? Nobody tells them, really. Look at this society: We have Columbus day saluting an Italian hero, St. Patrick’s Day saluting an Irish icon; a pretty good knowledge of most major Jewish holidays, and now we’re learning African heritage through Kwanzaa and even Muslim culture with increasing post-911 publicity about such religious observances as Ramadan. Is there one French day of note? In New york, Bastille Day is celebrated by closing off one half block. Right now, the French might as well be Bosnians as far as being in American minds. “The French? Hey, don’t they make perfume and run at the first sign of trouble?” But go to France and you find the people there actually think Americans keep up with France as France keeps up with America. C’est triste.
The lesson here is that vacuums are vacuums and they will be filled by someone else if you don’t step in first. Next time this happens, see you at the French-American marcgh in Washington, and in the defamation lawsuit as it reaches class-action status. But until then, see you in earnest conversations all across the country…
December 1st, 2008 at 5:21 am
I think it would be vital to draw attention from the French government; this could be done with a sufficiently large petition. The petition, the existence of sites such as this and SF, and Sarkoléon’s national pride could well be catalysts for the success of our mission; especially considering that, with Obama’s rise to power, there’s a general atmosphere of goodwill and a will to please the United States; I think it could work, especially with the positive scope offered by Claude.
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:53 am
Proof positive French Bashing in the media came from Rove ?
December 12th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Completely agree, Marc.
But I’m afraid that, when the International Court of Justice at long last indicts that sorry bunch, our grounds for litigation will be very small in comparison with those of the millions who died in a war of aggression which they conspired to launch and to wage (the very same indictment which sent a few dozen German leaders swinging from a rope in Nuremberg).
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:04 am
Hi All,
I can relay to that. I was living in San-francisco, right before the rise of dark ages in 2000 election, and I never heard french bashing that time, nor perceived animosity from the locals wasp community.
After the 2003 debate I was just settling down in Ireland, and I still can remember the french bashing starting right with the opposition of the french to the Anglo-American pathetic pissing contest in Irak.
It started in Sky news, english broadcast, and was all over interview and press conference given by neoconist like rumfield and its idiotic peers.
It remains me of the anti-french bashing that took place in germany in the 30”, and which ultimatly lead to the 2nd wold war. The parrale you can draw between Nazi Germany and Neoconist USA is that for example all reference to the peace movement in France illustrated by the “la grande illusion”, a reference to the stupidity of war, and the peacefull nature of simple people, where bared form entering Germany, and labelled by the nazi, as Ennemi movie no 1.
In teh same time, back to the post-2003, many french writters, movies had a very hard time being showed in the USA.
But most alarming of all, is the inclination from all American to give into that french bashing.
I think mostly, it was caused self-denial and fear.
What we can hope for, is that the USA will loose for good its hegenomy, and that it will increasingly step further in deline.
I used to love the USA before 2003, but I despise it nowadays, and do not trust it anymore, not because of the french bashing, but becuase it try to silence the voice of liberty and raison in the name of democracy and freedom.That shows a great deal about this country and how it cannot be trusted anymore.
It’s time we, as continental European end our tolerance of the USA, and start governing without the meddling of USA.
Anyway, for what I see in Shanghai ( I’m running a company there), is that of all expatriates there, most of the Americans I see work either as English Teacher or for big corporation, I’ve been here 5 years and met only 2 American entrepreneurs, but countless entrepreneur of french nationality, starting their business here.
So much for the much self acclaimed American Entrepreneurial Spirit.
April 27th, 2009 at 11:02 am
If it’s any consolation, there is a standing summons that will be served to Rumsfeld(and I think in Belgium too) if ever he musters the courage to set foot in Germany for accusations of war crimes.