Problem 2

Problem 2: War on Iraq

This is the real problem. I don't doubt a second that Bush probably knows more than me about chemical weapons in Iraq. I don't doubt a second that what he knows is probably top secret. But you can't blame me - you can't blame anybody - for refusing to blindly follow someone just because he might know more than you. If it was only me, I might not even mind, but he obviously didn't tell anything to my president. If he had given actual proof to Chirac that there are chemical weapons, if he had done more than saying he knew it, we would have followed you. Should I follow a country because they once were my allies? Oh, no. Just as a reminder, a few decades ago, Iraq was an ally of the US. Do you trust them more now because they once helped you? The French are also mad because the US ignored the UN. I know the UN is not a world government (I wish it were, though), but the US are part of it. They signed papers. They are in the Security Council, so they should be even more responsible, show good example. Not remember the UN when you like it and forget it when you don't like what they're telling you. A single example: Israel violated a lot more UN resolutions than Iraq, but I don't remember the US ever talking of attacking them. Also, the US used its veto a lot more than France, and I don't remember France starting bashing like what is going now at any time. Now that I told you why France is acting like that, you can start to laugh and say how stupid I am, and that after all, I'm just a High School student, who cares? Go ahead. Keep trying to erase France from America. Talk about Freedom fries and Freedom toast all that you want. Make fun of me. Stop buying French products. Pour French wine in the street. Oh, yeah, you can also burn your constitution and the stars and stripes if you feel like it, since as I remember, without French help, you would never have become a country.

French bashing on the rise
By MICHAEL A.W. OTTEY
Miami Herald

he bad jokes circulating on the Internet, the rise in "I Hate France" Web sites, the calls to boycott French wines, cancel trips to Paris, and THAT New York Post front page. Given France's stance on Iraq and seeming anti-Americanism, French-bashing American-style has grown as popular as French fries, French kisses and French doors. The French - and to a lesser extent their new sidekicks the Germans - have angered so many Americans by their lack of support for a possible war against Iraq that it's become commonplace to hear on the airways, in the mass media, in Internet chat rooms and in everyday conversation slams at all things French. Yet, there are some Americans who are praising "Le Resistance FranCais"! In light of Sept. 11, and the war on terror, some Americans can't understand why the French are behaving more like obstructionists and less like allies. We, after all, stood with them more than once at great sacrifice, Americans say. Annick Cojean, a French journalist, last week lashed back at Americans, stating that France has not forgotten that America came to its rescue, and while his nation is forever grateful, gratitude does not translate to servitude. A growing number of Americans now seem resigned to end the family feud of sorts, and dismiss the French outright. As more than one Web site reports, France "is for all intensive purposes useless" and "not nearly as important as it thinks."

"I think the French forgot their history," said Mindy Linn of St. Louis as she prepared to get some sun on the beach in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "We've done a lot for those people." Linn, 33, who works in the sales department for a telecommunications company, said the French gained their freedom with the help of the United States, and they seem to have forgotten. Suddenly "French Open" takes on a whole new meaning, for it's open season on the French, and in this age of political correctness, there is no groundswell of outrage at the jokes, the name-calling, the nastiness directed at an entire group.

Anything but. When The New York Post referred to the French, the Germans and Belgians as "the axis of weasel" and altered a photograph of the French and German representatives to the United Nations - replacing their faces with those of actual weasels - the response from many Americans was "Bravo!" According to unapologetic Post editors, the mail from readers was running 70 percent in favor of the bold act. No surprise given the hundreds of anti-French jokes making the rounds by e-mail and on the countless Web sites devoted entirely to bashing the French with references such as "wimps", and "cheese-eating surrender monkeys," and worst. A sample: "What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up?

Answer: "The French army." One North Carolina restaurant owner is taking his own anti-French stance a step further. Neal Rowland, the owner of Cubbie's in Beaufort, now sells his fried potato strips as "freedom fries." Emmanuel Gagniarre, press attache for the Embassy of France in Washington, D.C., says France is no wimp. His country simply wants to handle the Iraq conflict through every available diplomatic avenue, with war a last resort, he said. According to Gagniarre the embassy receives plenty of e-mail and phone calls from Americans praising France for its stance. It also gets its share of hate mail, he said. He acknowledged that U.S.-French relations are very strained at this time. "I would say they're not at an all-time high, that's for sure," he said. "We always thought that we feel very close to America, and the people of this country. We are entitled to tell things to America other countries wouldn't dare to say. We share the same values, we have the same history for the last 200 years, we feel we need to have a dialogue of adults on those very serious issues that could have dire consequences." Gagniarre dismissed notions of his countrymen's dislike for Americans as nonsense. "I don't think it's anti-Americanism from the large majority of the French people," he said. "I would not say that there's very strong anti-French feelings either. It's true that people are extremely angry and passionate." Regarding the increased French-bashing from Americans, Gagniarre sees it as all part of a healthy public discourse. "It shows that France matters for the U.S. and the U.S. matters for France."

However, regarding The New York Post slam, Gagniarre said it was "a pity" but not worth loss of sleep. "I don't think the French media has reacted the same way," he said. "I think they're much more intellectually distant from what's going on. Obviously people don't think that they're at war in Europe." For his part, President Jacques Chirac of France told Time Magazine he spent several years in the United States visiting, studying, working as a forklift operator for Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis and as a soda jerk at Howard Johnson, and even as a journalist, and he feels nothing but love for America. "I know the U.S. perhaps better than most French people, and I really like the United States," Chirac told Time. "I've always worked and supported transatlantic solidarity. When I hear people say that I'm anti-American, I'm sad, not angry, but really sad." Some Americans, such as Jerry Kessler, 54, of Englewood, Fla., stand with France. "What should past history have anything to do with what's right and wrong," said Kessler, who owns and operates a scuba diving shop. "My position stands similar to the French position. What is America about if not the ability to dissent?" His wife, Barbara Kessler, 56, a self-described pacifist from Scotland, said the whole hate-France thing and pouring French wine down the drain "is just silly." Gilles Tanguay, 57, a French-Canadian from Quebec, said he's been to France many times and the notion that the French dislike Americans is not true.

"I can tell you the French people love Americans," he said. "I think it took guts for the French president to take a stand. I don't think American people should boycott France for that. It's sad that it is like this." His wife, Francoise Guillemette, 52, agreed. David Lapierre, 31, a salesman from Hebron, Conn., said it's a shame the French aren't showing support for the United States. "My big thing is obviously the relationship is absolutely strained," he said. "With the French, it's an oil thing. They have one of the largest contracts with Iraq. It's a financial interest that they have, and yet we've done so much for their country. We won't drink any French wine, I can tell you that." Paul Marsh, 36, of Reading, England, said the rift between the French and the Americans pales in comparison to the centuries-old rift between the French and the Brits. "We don't like the French and the French don't like the British," Marsh said as he drank an American beer with a couple of other Brits at the Elbo Room in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "We've got an understanding. France is great but it's for the French."

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