[lit-ideas] Re: Comparing Bush and Chirac
- From: Judy Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 15:22:37 +0000
Monday, November 1, 2004, 2:14:08 PM, Eternitytime1@xxxxxxx wrote:
Eac> of nation-states having an impact. The isolationist group is
Eac> quite large--and they would very cyncially state that the *only*
Eac> reason why people in France (especially, since they 'benefitted'
Eac> from the corruption of Saddam Hussein) did not want the invasion
Eac> of Iraq to occur was so that they could continue to feather their
Eac> nest. (so to speak)
Perhaps they should be told that not all the people of France did
benefit from that, even in the broadest sense of "benefit", that they
were not "feathering their nests", so, that was not their motive in
opposing the War on Iraq.
Eac> It is not that someone (like me, even) would ever think that France ought
to
Eac> clean house just like the USA should clean house simply because someone in
Eac> France tells me to do so. It is because if you really care about a clean
Eac> house, you will take care of your own.
But if the price of "cleaning" it (i.e. not voting for Chirac) is a
raving racist antisemite, Le Pen, as President, what then? As Mike
says, "the French" -- and I think we can say "the French" given there
were so many -- voted for a man they loathed and despised (Chirac) to
keep Le Pen out of office.
Then there's the small question of how citizens anywhere get the power
to clean the house (except when they vote in major elections, and, I
add, even then). We have rather more chance than you or the French
simply because our political leader is not also Head of State, but
still...
Eac> (the whole 'don't throw rocks if you live in a glass house' maybe?)
Marlena, this list has, though not to the extent of Phil-Lit, seen a
nuber of attacks on France and on "Europe" and in a sense on the UK
that are ill-informed and unsavoury, and born, it sometimes seems, of
the kind of hate shown by (e.g.) P J O'Rourke (who is not
ill-informed, and should know better). Now and then it decides to
point out that Americans may live in a glass house, whereupon the shit
hits the fan. We are not possessed of endless patience.
Eac> If we (okay,
Eac> me) could get some real articulate answers, then we (okay, me) are better
Eac> able to use those answers when we are confronted by people who completely
Eac> discount anything that is said in regards to either the UN, people from
other
Eac> countries who opposed the War in Iraq, especially, sad to say, France.
It does
Eac> NOT necessarily have to be an antagonistic question--it very well is often
Eac> something that would be helpful to have other points of view or answers
Eac> to--especially for me (for example--please believe me when I tell you
that I live and
Eac> work in an incredibly narrow-minded world...and it is often a good thing
that
Eac> I do the light in darkness thing for myself and my child else we just
Eac> couldn't cope)
I do have an idea what that world is like. I am lucky to live in one
that is not remotely like that
Eac> If I could say to those in 'my world', that Others in France (and/or
other
Eac> places) are also not just having a 'too bad, so sad' attitude but as upset
at
Eac> the corruption in highest places in their countries as I am about the same
in
Eac> mine--it really makes a difference.
The French are, like the British, very cynical about politicians. We
lack US idealism. But the story of the last election in France speaks
for itself: many French voters "held their noses" when they voted for
Chirac. Doesn't that say enough?
****
At one stage, 90 per cent of the people of Britain opposed the War on
Iraq. The anti-war march here was, I believe, the largest. Opposition
to an attack on Iraq was so widespread, across social groups, across
ages, at the grass roots and at the top of the political ladder, that
it staggered me. It was not a created or fomented opposition.
What did our leader do? He sent our troops to, placed us in a state
of, war.
Does that not speak of a house for the cleaning?
--
Judy Evans, Cardiff, UK
mailto:judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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