Volatility from Paris: "Smart Bubbas"

Now this one is tough for me because Andrew is a smart guy and puts a lot of thought into his posts.

So maybe this one can be chalked up to a "Everyone will be a bubba for 15 minutes." Some people (and I don't mean Andrew) seem to want to exceed that 15 minutes by an awful lot.

Anyway, Andrew suggests that the real underlying problem in French/US relations is the implicit "I told you so" that underlies all French politics. He goes on to agree with Friedman that the French tactic is simply to block US initiatives.

And there you go: bubba in action. Replace intelligent discourse and careful argument with gross generalizations and unfounded conclusions. The slippery slope into Coulter/O'Reilly territory.

So the reason that the Bush administration has the "big hate" agenda is just that France is annoying and contrarian? What about the rule of international law, multilateralism, sovereignity? What about the democratic process at the UN? Aren't these the standards that the French diplomatic process was trying to uphold? Wasn't Chirac's position that "war is always the worst solution because of the toll in human life"?

And was France alone in espousing these values? Wasn't just about 80% of the world on these same lines, with historically large protest marches around the world? Why is this "France against the US" when it seems that France was simply a much more vocal component of a majority of the world's opinion.

So, of course the Bush administration must make an object lesson out of the "vassal" state that tries to stake claims to international law and order. No "vassal" must get in the way of the neocon manifest destiny (oil, markets, reduced taxes). Bush must put France out in the cold in order to show other vassal states what happens when you get out of your designated place. That's the clear and obvious reason for the Bush response.

But with more blogs like Andrew's giving credence to the "France is just annoying" line, the real story is hidden. Good thing that there are others like "bubbalogic" to set him straight and, at the same time, improve his google ranking by linking to it. :(