Other and juicier reports on this particular saga are at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1394538.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1359701.stm

But why focus on just France? A week or so back Mr Andreotti, a long serving past prime minister of Italy, was convicted on retrail of incitement to murder: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2486701.stm

Then there was the little matter of what happened with the ex-General Secretary of NATO, previously Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/241342.stm

Not to mention Kohlgate in Germany: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/622041.stm

And just to show that I have no party bias in this, the SPD in Germany had their own little thing going: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1860381.stm

The fact that so many on either side of the Atlantic have little recollection of much of all this is due, in my view, to a real European talent for news management that leaves America standing. Even the above addresses to news reports by no means exhausts the bucket. Perhaps readers will recall that all members of the EU Commission resigned in March 1999 over accusations of nepotism and fraud. The Commission's accounts have not been audited for years for reasons not unconnected with this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2226345.stm

ahhhh, Mitterand, there was a man, we shall not see his like.

... decorated by both sides in the Second World War

... once blew up his own car and blamed it on the Algerians as a publicity stunt

... mourned by his wife, children, mistress and her children

And yet he protected the French way of life better than anyone else managed during the go-go years of Anglo-Saxon capitalism and was the architect of the single currency.

What great achievements will history remember our current crop of bloodless masturbators for? Bombing a few places which don't have enough food, and dismantling the fire brigade?

Just goes to show that there are many worse qualities in a politican than a little corruption.

"And yet he protected the French way of life better than anyone else managed during the go-go years of Anglo-Saxon capitalism and was the architect of the single currency."

Mitterand merely "protected" the French from reality. This is why they are now so delusional and impotent. The French are part of the problem and not part of the solution. We can feel sorry for them, but America cannot afford to wait for the Frenchies to get their act together.

>>This is why they are now so delusional and impotent<<

Met a lot of them, have you?

Sadly, in western Europe, it is a complete delusion to suppose that pervasive political corruption is an exclusive prerogative of France's political establishment.

The intended purpose of my posting (only) a select list of public domain websites was to show that corruption - and serious, not minor corruption - is far more extensive in Europe. The fact is that investigative journalists and whistle blowers have been murdered, even if headline politicians were not directly implicated or have been "unjustly" convicted on trial.

By European standards, Watergate, and more so the saga relating to the attempted impeachment of President Clinton, were trivial affairs. The standard take of Europeans on the latter is to wonder what all the fuss was about.

>>The French are part of the problem and not part of the solution.<<

Remarkable how many people feel exactly the same way about America.

And what reality, pray tell, did Mitterand protect the French people from? The reality of their position in the world? I assure you French people are well aware of the scope of American power as well as the limitations of their own. It's the lead story on the news most of the time these days.

Perhaps this is just grousing about the skill with which French government is able to use what power it has to get what it wants? Or perhaps it's the economic situation in France which was shielded by Mitterand's policies? Again, France suffers no great ignorance of its unemployment rate. When American power isn't the lead story, the economy usually is.

This is just so much muttering from insular nationalists about how they dislike any country whose leaders fail to genuflect towards Washington.

>>The French are part of the problem and not part of the solution.<<

Remarkable how many people feel exactly the same way about America.

And what reality, pray tell, did Mitterand protect the French people from? The reality of their position in the world? I assure you French people are well aware of the scope of American power as well as the limitations of their own. It's the lead story on the news most of the time these days.

Perhaps this is just grousing about the skill with which French government is able to use what power it has to get what it wants? Or perhaps it's the economic situation in France which was shielded by Mitterand's policies? Again, France suffers no great ignorance of its unemployment rate. When American power isn't the lead story, the economy usually is.

This is just so much muttering from insular nationalists about how they dislike any country whose leaders fail to genuflect towards Washington.

“This is just so much muttering from insular nationalists about how they dislike any country whose leaders fail to genuflect towards Washington.”

The United States is the world’s preeminent power by default. I most certainly don’t wish that France genuflects toward Washington, DC. Actually, I’m hoping that the French assume more responsibility for their own fate. They currently parasite off the United States and tacitly hope that we will fight their battles for them. This results in their increasing inferiority complex and renders them bitter and envious. The French do not normally offer adult criticisms of American policy. Instead, we get to hear their immature and childish rantings. The following article should be read by everybody:

http://www.theamericanenterprise.org/taedec02a.htm

>>This results in their increasing inferiority complex and renders them bitter and envious<<

Met a lot of them, have you?

>>I’m hoping that the French assume more responsibility for their own fate. They currently parasite off the United States and tacitly hope that we will fight their battles for them. This results in their increasing inferiority complex and renders them bitter and envious.<<

Oh good lord. Do you live on another planet? Do you know anything about French current affairs? Est-ce que tu sais parler même un mot de leur langue? Have you - ever - actually met a Frenchman? What on earth leads you to ascribe to a national inferiority complex to France - the most interventionist and most heavily armed nation in Europe - of all places?

There is something contemptible about amateur psychologists diagnosing the ills of whole states as if they were neurotic characters on Seinfeld, especially when - I'll bet good money - they've never lived there, possibly never visited, and certainly don't speak the language. If I was the sort to make such broad and foolish statements, I might suggest that those kinds of analyses are projections of their proponents own insecurities onto others. Is this the traditional American sense of cultural inferiority - long thought extinct by most educated people - raising its ugly head, or just an echo the xenophobic sentiments of conservative punditry?

Nationalism is an ugly thing to behold.

"The top Elf-Aquitaine moment for me was when cops apprehended fugitive oil exec Alfred Sirven and he ATE HIS CELL PHONE. Yes, he ATE it. Dang!"

One can only hope that the oil executive washed down the cell phone with a good Fench burgundy.

"What on earth leads you to ascribe to a national inferiority complex to France - the most interventionist and most heavily armed nation in Europe - of all places?"

I am glad to see that the unemployment rate of France's socialist economy is down to 9%. Gosh, what happened during the Balkans crisis? America once again had to save your rear ends. When are you going to be able to handle your own difficulties? The game is up. Many Americans now realize that the French are mere backstabbers and not to be trusted. Are my views atypical? Not at all, they are increasingly becoming the standard way many Americans view the French. Also, France's anti-Semitism is beyond contempt. This following item was just posted on www.andrewsullivan.com:

"ANTI-SEMITISM WATCH: As I pointed out last week, in France, the major publisher, Flammarion, has just published a children's book called "Dreaming of Palestine," a thinly veiled anti-Semitic tract. This kind of thing, I now learn, is by no means new to Flammarion. That publishing house also brought out Edouard Drumont's "La France Juive," back in 1886. According to Johns Hopkins professor, David Bell, "La France Juive" was "the most influential anti-Semitic work in French history, and probably the most influential in nineteenth-century Europe. It went through 200 editions, becoming one of the great bestsellers of the period, and helped create the atmosphere in which the Dreyfus Affair took place." Plus ça change ..."

"American military spending now totals more than the next nine largest national defense budgets combined. Even more significantly, the U.S. now pays for almost 80 percent of the world's military R & D. Without admitting it, the Europeans have essentially decided to rely on the U.S. to keep them safe. American taxpayers are paying to build a missile defense system, an unchallengeable air force, and a fleet of 13 separate supercarriers with attendant air wings and naval battle groups. Europeans are concentrating on producing richer foie gras, art museums, and corporate subsidies. They could do much more to help guard the West without straining themselves."

http://www.theamericanenterprise.org/taedec02a.htm

>>Also, France's anti-Semitism is beyond contempt.<<

Interesting because my Jewish French friends don't think so. Only those who unconditionally support the occupation do.

An other thing: thought control is not nearly as big in France as it is in the US. So, the Jewish lobby will not be allowed to prevent the airing / publication of Palestinian views.

The (re)publication of anti-semitic books is always disturbing. Bizzarely though, it is France, not the US, that forbids the sale of Nazi memorabilia over the internet (ask Yahoo!)

I assure you French people are well aware of the scope of American power as well as the limitations of their own. It's the lead story on the news most of the time these days.


I don't know which news you are referring to. I guess it must be the print media and especially Le Monde, because it certainly does not refer to the television evening news, which rarely if ever speaks of the limitations of French power. What was the lead story last night on TV? The Davis Cup (tennis). What has been the lead story the past couple of weeks? Either the oil spill in Spain, the floods in France, or an accident on a French freeway which tragically killed 5 firemen.

so if i don't like the french, c'est car je ne sais pas parler français, j'ai jamais habiter ou visiter la France, et puis moi-meme j'ai une complexe d'inferioriter. Bien sur! J'ai complemetement oublier tout sa. Je suis un degolasse americain!

va te faire foutre, petit mouche à merde!

so jewish day school bus is attacked and it's ok... Nuqe ta mere juifs (or rather NTM Juifs) is grafitti everywhere in the faubourgs.. but of course france isn't anti-semitic... and they even outlaw nazi paraphenalia... free speech vs endorsement of hate speech... there's a difference

as for national inferirority complex... well its been pretty much constant since Napoleon... and of course its well deserved... they haven't won a war in how many years? (considering that the French didn't win WWI and II, rather the US, UK, Russians, and the Commonwealth, with idiotic sops to french pride.. we should have left degaulle at homed and kept france as a new louisianna... or maybe used the free french as minesweepers...)

beware the mighty aircraft carrier CDG! you might foul your prop if you follow it too closely in shallow water and it drops another prop! and it's planes might plow into your water line, as they don't have enough room to takeoff or land safely!

JP Stijns... uhmmm:
"thought control is not nearly as big in France as it is in the US."
"it is France, not the US, that forbids the sale of Nazi memorabilia over the internet."

The juxtaposition of those two comments in such proximity in the same paragraph amused me greatly. Thank you.

“An other thing: thought control is not nearly as big in France as it is in the US. So, the Jewish lobby will not be allowed to prevent the airing / publication of Palestinian views.”

Wow, you sure do have to watch those sneaky Jews. My guess that someone has been reading his copy of The Protocols of Zion.

Jean-Philippe writes The (re)publication of anti-semitic books is always disturbing. Bizzarely though, it is France, not the US, that forbids the sale of Nazi memorabilia....

I think the objection is not that it is legal to publish an anti-semitic book, but instead the hypothesis that the anti-semitism will be popular. I, for one, hope that hypothesis is falsified.

About the scandals: hand massive power to the government and massive corruption will ensue.

>The (re)publication of anti-semitic books is always disturbing. Bizzarely though, it is France, not the US, that forbids the sale of Nazi memorabilia....

A (good) local bookstore in a London suburb where I live has a copy of Mein Kampf on the shelves in the European History section. Close by are copies of Lipstadt's book on Holocaust Denial and Anthony Kershaw's recently published two-volume study of Hitler, as well as a lot more books on fascism and WW2. That seems a better way to me than banning - or burning - books.

"That seems a better way to me than banning - or burning - books."

We should indeed not ban these books. The far better course of action is to educate people to reject their evil messages.

"The (re)publication of anti-semitic books is always disturbing. Bizzarely though, it is France, not the US, that forbids the sale of Nazi memorabilia."

There is also far more anti-Semitism in France than in the United States. I wonder why?