"If an empire falls in Africa will you hear the crash?"

In today's International Herald Tribune under the picture of two French legionaires evacuating a French citizen from Abidjan --"For France the end of an era". Maybe for some. But for many others the end of the era has long come and gone. This is merely the proof positive that France can not put it's money where it's mouth is -- a peace agreement, brokered in Paris, by Jacques Chirac, that the primary signator's constituency will not honor. I wonder how fast it will take Chirac to swing over to America now that they have been proven impotent in Cote d'Ivoire?

Pretty fast, I reckon. For all that, the French military do train well and I would match their mountain guys against any in the world. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that living and training in the Alps year round produces better alpine troops than those training at Fort Drum, New York. But then again, France doesn't have NY Senator Chuck Schumer fighting to keep a base open for economic reasons, rather than moving it to a better location for training reasons. Their special operations forces are top notch and in line with U.S. capabilities. Their air force has fine pilots and their navy has a long distinquished history. The trouble with is not with France's military, though there is not enough money to fund them properly for the optempo they have now, nor are there enough soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, if you will, since conscription was ended in favor of a professional force because, again, there is no money for it.

The trouble is with France's politics. Having embraced socialism as a counter-action against classic capitalism, or Market Force capitalism, due to massive corruption at all levels of government and business, (laiss�-faire what?) the end of a World War and a tanking economy a couple of decades later, the French have chosen a slow path to irrelevence. The situation in Cote d'Ivoire proves the point. Not able to compete with the U.S. in the sixities Charles DeGaul chose to "push" the U.S. out of France. There has since, ever so often, been talk by some parties of coming back to NATO but they are only interested in a leading role, without bringing anything to lead with to the table.

No, if the "hexagon" could speak, it would say, "Our contribution to the world is not in support of war but rather peace and the art of living. We bring to the world a mindset that demands civility, savoir-vivre, and l'amoir above all." The trouble with this philosophy is that they left the barn door open when they asked the U.S. to leave and they let in much of North Africa and the Middle-East. What the Ottoman's weren't able to do in the 18th century, the Mahgrebians are doing today. Twelve percent of the population of France is of North African or Middle Eastern origin.

That's 12 percent of the voting population.

The government of France has traded "laissez tomber" for laiss�-faire for good reason - self preservation of what's left of their pride. With no empire, not enough forces to be effective, nor enough money to put the ones they have out in front to begin with, they have no projection of power. The mouse that roared is the equivelent of what Chirac is doing on the security council.

Our government lives with this, and indeed has not been saying much against France, other than the odd comment or two by US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfled when he's a tad constipated. In the end, France will support the U.S. In the end it's about pride and without a say in the rebuilding of Iraq, dealing with rioting muslims in the suburbs of Paris, Marseille, and Nice, will be just too much.