It is hard to fathom the arrogance...

[misanthrope]

...of this administration in sending Condi Rice to ask the French to ignore past U.S. actions.

After we blustered through the French protests, after the Bush administration actively discounted and denigrated them and used Gallic association as a synonym for an effete elitism and cowardice, after so many in our culture raked them over the coals for standing up for ideals that turned out to be salient, after all of this and more the French are supposed to ignore it and capitulate to Shrub's wishes?

The anger this raises in me is befuddling. I can't imagine how the French feel. Amazing.

Be kind of cool if the French "hemmed and hawwed" about reconciliation to the extent they could get Rumsfeld to somehow arrive in Paris, then arrest and extradite him to Germany.

Afterward, they could turn to Shrub and say, "You're right. Now we don't feel so bad about it all. Let's forget the past, ol' buddy."

[Mich Otter]

1. American arrogance

Not to worry, the French are certainly not going to start falling for Bush-it now or any time soon. They knew what kind of mess Iraq would be.

[newyawker99]

7. Hi Mich Otter!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[LSparkle]

2. Yeah ... didn't she tell * to "punish France"?

I don't see her as a very good messenger at this point. Since she speaks Russian, I thought she might also speak French, but if she does, I didn't hear her use any of it. That would have been the least she could have done to mend fences -- saying "j'en suis desolee."

[Hissyspit]

5. Supposedly she said, during UN negotiation breakdown, U.S. shoud...

"forgive Russia, ignore Germany, and punish France."

Not clear to me whether she actually said it or not.
http://author.voanews.com/english/NewsAnalysis/2004-11-24-voa34.cfm

[shoelace414]

3. "Yea.. I mugged you, but it was last year"

get over it.

[Stirk]

4. How about Kissinger for the head of the 9-11 commission?

Or Ashcroft as Attourney General? Or Alberto Gonzalez for the same post? How about John Poindexter?

The list is long. Most of the Bush Administration's appointments are big "fuck you"'s to the opposition more than anything else. The people obviously can't actually do the jobs they're appointed to.

[No Exit]

6. Back when all that anti-French b.s. was at its height, I wondered

why didn't the wingnuts say the same things about the Germans? Because the Germans' position was pretty much the same as that of the French.

I guess they just didn't think it would be "cool" to denigrate Germans the way they denigrated the French. After all, SOME Germans are their ideological ancestors!