France Catches Colonial Fever
February 11, 2008
When you have a dead people, anyone can come and piss on you. Even those who until recently were being described by their (neocon) friends as ‘cheese eating surrender monkeys’. From Link TV (via TruthDig).
The Mosaic Intelligence Report investigates France’s aggressive new push to involve itself in the Middle East. The French have signed a deal to set up a permanent military base in the Persian Gulf region, the first such facility controlled by a Western nation that isn’t led by George W. Bush.
How did a former colonial power that knew better than to back the Iraq invasion become so interested in sending troops to the Middle East? You’ll have to ask Nicholas Sarkozy, or watch the video below.
February 11, 2008 at 11:49 am
The French have had a very imperial outlook Right and Left all the way through.
The French Left supported the special powers that were supported in the 50s and the history of the french communist party denouncing the student movement in 68 is well documented.They only got involved in that issue when the student movement were joined by trade unionists in the peugeot car plants and then the french left got involved in order to “take charge” or , at the very least , to stop the spread of the mass movement getting any further , thus doing the regimes job for them.
Even in the small window of break in the 70s when detente allowed the western left movements to have a more autonomous policy the French left scuppered this by imperialistically wanting to dominate the Italians and Spanish ( who were fighting a vital fight against the never de-nazified fascists) or undermine any pan-left alliances in western europe by failing to join in.
The more recent issue of the hijab incidents in France showed the left to be even more passionate than the right to find ideological models to de-robe woman from their personal choices , in this issue the UK left deserve special commendation for their principled and upfront support on the issue , where despite the best efforts of the Euston 500 to make this the issue that would break the Muslim/left anti-war alliance , the left admirably held firm.
The riots last year were further indication of the French left aloofness to take an unequivable stand to support minority grievances.
This imperialistc vision from both the right and the left has made the crossover from “cheesemonkey” to re-coloniser a simple enough process because their is no genuine force to counter it , as genuine opposition to re-colonisation can only happen if there is an alliance of equals bettween the Muslims;beures and the Left , which as for reasons discussed is not the case in France.
sarkovy is allowed to do as he does simply because he knows that rather than be challenged , if anything, hell get a measure of support from what should be his natural counterbalance.
February 11, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Interesting comment in the truthdig blog about the reactivication of a Russian base in tartuos , Syria.
Classic symptons of a scramble descending on a carcuss after the drip drip collaspe of an Empire.
February 11, 2008 at 11:05 pm
No-one need be in any doubt that with Sarkozy’s election France has taken a decisive turn directly into the US neo-con orbit.
His links to Felix Rohatyn,Richard Perle and his choice of Foreign Minister the pro-Iraq war Kouchner mean it was only a matter of time before the French began again to whet their colonial appetites.Kouchner is already a welcome guest at the CFR.
At a recent CFR meeting,Kouchner-introduced to the august body by none other than Rohatyn himself- announced that in Afghanistan,Iraq,Lebanon,Syria,Israel and the Occupied Territories the danger was that a Gordian Knot was forming which France and the US jointly would soon have to cut.He went to crow re-French driven initiatives in Darfur and Lebanon.Both of which came to nothing although this was not vouchsafed to his American audience.
The US should not be left alone with the problem of extricating itself from Iraq,France was going to assist.The painful experience of the US in Iraq taught that unilateralism was not the way forward.
Although Sarkozy represents a clear break with Gaullism-indeed his resemblance to Vichy antecedents has not gone unnoticed-the premium he puts on foreign policy is not unlike that of De Gaulle who from 1940 on devoted his career to ensuring France’s rank in the world by retaining colonies in Indochina and Algeria when shrewd observers well knew France’s colonial empire had passed its sell-by date long before.
With the involvement of statesmen like Sarkozy in foreign affairs the premium is on personality and symbolism as much as promoting French corporate interests.If the US alliance assists in this twin-track project Sarkozy’s projection of himself on to the world stage will be of a different order indeed from De Gaulle who was obsessed with resisting US hegemony in Europe.
Sarkozy’s civil nuclear power deals in the Gulf and N.Africa aim to pressurize Iran forcing it into diplomatic isolation on Washington’s behalf.The obvious danger for France in Iran is that other European,Chinese,and Indian competitors will overtake current French financial and industrial interests there.
Hawking weapons deals and nuclear energy may yet blow up in Sarkozy’s face.
February 18, 2008 at 8:58 am
[...] on Sarkozy, Farnce and Israel here, here and [...]