The Price of Arrogance

The Price of Arrogance

The French are not well practiced at introspection. It is more French to presume moral and intellectual superiority. But, with the news that the French, not only had no part in, but weren't even informed of, the negotiations that ended with Libya surrendering its WMD's had only reinforced the growing suspicision that France's behavior before and during the Iraq War has landed her in a backwater of irrelevence.

“ Vengeance is a hamburger that is eaten cold,” writes Georges Dupuy in Liberation. “The fingerprint of the United States could be detected in the setbacks suffered by France’s diplomacy.”

“France over did it,” says Dominique Moisi, a foreign policy researcher close to the Chirac administration. “Our opposition to the war was principled. But the way we expressed it was excessive. The Americans might have accepted such behaviour from Russia, but not from France which was regarded as an ally and friend.”

Moisi describes as “needlessly provocative” the campaign that Villepin conducted last spring to persuade Security Council members to vote against the US-backed draft resolution on Iraq, He says that the Chirac administration did not understand the impact of the 9/11 tragedy on America’s view of the world.

Payback may have had something to do with it. But, on a more pragmatic note, who in their right mind would trust the French?