UNILATERALISME

The Diplomad identifies the one thing I can say in favor of French foreign policy:

With genuine admiration we must say that there is no other country on earth that pursues its core national interests in as determined and ruthless a manner as France.

No kidding. France is doing just that in the Ivory Coat, where they appear to have carte blanche to prop up their stooges and protect French commercial interests. I don't know enough to say they're wrong to do so, but I think the French word for this is — I checked with Babelfish — "hipocrisy."

The Diplomad elaborates on this particular "core national interest":

Suffice it to say, that France never reconciled itself to giving up its empire there and, so, it hasn't. Countries such as Ivory Coast and Senegal are independent in name only. The French give them permission to have a flag, an anthem, some postage stamps (printed in France), some funny colored currency (printed in France), perhaps a national airline, a President and membership in the UN. That's about it.

Damn this unipolar world. The French are colonialist assholes just like us, only (a lot) worse. And of course, they do so with the backing of another set of stooges at the ever-more corrupt U.N.

The Muslim world is at war with itself — and we've been brought into it. Meanwhile, the French are at war with their own place in the world — and we're just as inextricably involved.

P.S. — Interesting blog, this Diplomad. Written by a Republican working for the State Department. It's like the late Belle de Jour, only even more on the down-low.