Beau Geste of the Persian Gulf, the Ballad of Sarkozy and Obama, OTAN…….
“France plays its own tune. Sarkozy seeks to expand French international influence apart from the United states after differences emerged on issues of the financial crisis and Iran’s nuclear program.........”
The media has been covering interesting differences are emerging between France and the USA under Obama and Sarkozy. Sarko is considered a conservative, quasi-right wing politician in France. He came to power on a record of “Law and Order”, sort of. Rings a bell?
Before you get too excited, this right wing Frenchman is to the left of any American politician you can think of. He is to the left of Obama, the late Ted Kennedy, and Bernie Sanders. He is a firm believer in the free public health for all system that France has. He also supports all other French social policies that a even moderate Democrat in the USA would consider ungodly socialist. Sarah Palin, Bill Kristol, and the American Enterprise Institute would consider it ungodly Communist. Not sure what Dick Cheney thinks of all this. I am beginning to like Sarko more as I write, well, more than before…….
It turns out Sarko thinks Obama is too soft on both banks and on Iran (I agree with him on the banks issue). Imagine a French leader thinking a US leader is too soft. He especially thinks Obama is too soft on Iran. Sarko seems to some Americans to have one or two Napoleonic traits (no, amazing military strategy is probably not one of them). He is already establishing new French bases on the Persian Gulf. There is one at least planned in the UAE.
But that is clever policy by Sarkozy: there is always some doubt about American resolve to remain in the Gulf. I know it is odd, since the Gulf can be logically renamed the Persian-American Gulf, divided right down the middle. It is not clear where this doubt comes from, but it is there. The French are probably the only European power in position to take advantage of that doubt. This goes back to Charles de Gaulle, who started the Force de Frappe and loosened ties with NATO (he called it OTAN and not because he turned things upside down).
Does this mean I will have to change the name to the Persian-American-French Gulf?
Cheers
mhg
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