With France sniveling more than usual, and mucking things up with some level of proficiency, one can hardly look at any piece of news without finding something colorful to say about the most pathetic, whiney, arrogant, self-righteous country in the world.
Recently I read an article in which a Frenchman implied, “The world needs to start regarding France as the superpower that it is.”
France a superpower? Is that an oxymoron?
That leads me to ask, why should France be a superpower? 1) They are the self-proclaimed fourth richest country in the world, 2) they possess nuclear weapons, 3) more than 3/4 of their energy is derived from nuclear power, 4) they are a member of G7, 5) they have significant power in the UN, and finally 6) they act as if they are better than everyone else.
To be sure I understood what a superpower is, I consulted my Webster Dictionary that offered this definition: “Superpower: an international governing body able to enforce its will upon the most powerful states.”
Well, if France cannot force its will on countries like Vietnam, Italy, or Spain, how do they plan on pushing around the “most powerful states”? More importantly, a superpower relies on NO ONE for its security, production, power, and ability to carryout military or diplomatic operations. France surely cannot live up to that responsibility. Need we remind ourselves that the only conflict every ‘won’ by France, single-handedly, was a civil war?
Many complain about France’s irresponsible attitude toward geo-politics, but few pundits offer a solution. I have recently read of efforts to ‘boycott France’ with ideas ranging from warning labels depicting use of bovine blood as a clarifier in French wine, to the everyday Joe refusing to buy Evian water.
By the way, Evian is nave spelled backwards.
I find the use of loose, grass roots sanctions, to be more bark than bite. I would like to see the rest of the world, or at least the portion that still relies on reason, to give France what it wants. I grew up hearing a story about my father begging his grandfather to use his pocketknife to whittle a stick in the backwoods of Texas. My father, being too young to use a knife, was repeatedly denied. Upon throwing a big enough fit, he got his way. As the story goes, he got a mean cut, and an “I told you so”.
Maybe that old story means something now.
The world should give France exactly what it wants. France the Superpower. Let one of the oldest countries in the world, which has never managed to defend itself, bear the responsibility that the most powerful nations in the world have to deal with daily. I’d love to see the taxicab brigade save Paris against some of the world’s modern enemies.
Then there are those who say France owes us. Or they’d all speak German if it weren’t for the good ol’ USA. Albeit true, I’d rather look at it as us being even, leaving less ties than absolutely necessary. They came to our aid in our Revolution against England, so we saved their butts throughout the 20th century. Fair’s fair.
Apart from sniveling over being left out of the superpower club, France has become a leading force in bringing the anti-Americanism of the Middle East to the European Union. Personally, I attribute this to the lack of recognition the world gave them for their efforts in the Cold War and in stomping out communism.
Probably because they did nothing.
If history is our professor of the future, then we can rest assured that someone, someday will make a move on their beloved Paris, and France will be looking for someone, somewhere to defend it. An embargo on Allied blood would leave the spineless paralyzed.
Then we could conquer it and name it something else.