The view from "old" Europe

I have returned to the US and am extremely happy to be home. While I value my European friends and enjoy emersing myself in the rich culture and history of the continent, I would never want to live there. On this trip, I was struck by just how deep the divide between the world views of ourselves and the French have grown. Not just on Iraq, but on the role of government and the nature of freedom, the so-called enlightened Europeans have left the planet. It is hard for me to believe that only 15 years after the collapse of the ultimate expression of state control, communism, the Western Europeans have allowed themselves to become slaves of ever-expanding socialist bureaucracies that have robbed them of not only their economic freedom, but now their personal freedom as well. It is hard to meet people of able bodies and able minds that have given over any hope of personal obtainment and success and have instead allowed themselves to become wards of the state. France imposes an 80% tax on gas, mandates a 30 hour work week and five weeks of vacation, and gives everyone access to over two years of generous unemployment benefits. They subsidize manufacturing, farming and fishing while asking the workers to bear the burden of this massive drag on the economy. The state gets bigger, the people get poorer and more dependent and the culture slowly decays. Meanwhile, they occupy Ivory Coast and have killed scores of Ivorians that have protested this occupation. They have destroyed the government's air force and supported an insurgency. All the while calling us imperialists and murderers for out intervention in Iraq. I have believed for some time that our differences with the French were shallow and would pass with time but I no longer think this is the case. As Chirac traveled this week to England and arrogantly denounced his host and insulted Great Britain's relationship with the US, I realized that his speeches about opposing a unipolar political alignment were more than just political rhetoric aimed at shaming America into acting in France's interest instead of our own, Chirac believes that the US is the greatest threat to world peace and that the proper role of France is to oppose us. I think this is a tremendous and frankly stupid misreading of the current political world order, but more over it shows that France does not necessarily share our values. Perhaps because our intervention in Iraq means no more lucrative oil for food kick backs for the Chirac administration or its client corporations such as Fina and the French arms industry or perhaps because he needs a bogeyman to distract the French people from the problems at home that his administration has been incompetent to resolve, Chirac has made us the enemy. I hope that as Americans we don't forget this in the event that France finds itself, once again, needing our support. In a way, they represent a far greater threat than Islamic terrorists. While the terrorists can hurt us with bombs and bullets, the French and like-minded nations can undermine our ability to act effectively in our own interests and the interest of liberty around the world.

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57% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of France

From: Rasmussen Reports

Wednesday November 17, 2004 A Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 25% have a favorable opinion of that nation. In fact, more Americans believe France is our enemy (31%) in the War on Terror than believe Jacques Chirac's country is our ally (22%). A plurality, 43%, believe that France's role is somewhere in between ally and enemy. These numbers stand in stark contrast to Great Britain. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of Americans have a favorable opinion of Tony Blair's country while only 9% have an unfavorable view. Eighty-three percent (83%) of Americans view Great Britain as our ally in the War on Terror. Germany, Russia, and the United Nations fall in between these extremes. Forty-four percent (44%) of Americans have a favorable opinion of the UN while 42% have an unfavorable view. Thirty-three percent (33%) of voters see the UN as our ally in the War on Terror and 17% see it as our enemy. Forty percent (40%) of voters have a favorable opinion of Germany while 34% have an unfavorable view. For Russia, the numbers are 33% favorable and 38% unfavorable. By a 77% to 11% margin, those who voted for President Bush have an unfavorable opinion of France. Kerry voters are more evenly divided--42% of Kerry voters have a favorable opinion of that nation, 35% unfavorable. Forty-three percent (43%) of Bush voters say France is our enemy in the War on Terror. Only 17% of Kerry voters share that view.