Sunday, April 13, 2003
[posted by jaed at 12:44 PM]Shame:
In the WSJ, Michael Gonzales takes a look at how Europe reached a fever pitch of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism - and he doesn't blame the Arab population, the media elite, or homesick-for-Che socialists. No, he blames the political leadership:
"How did we get here?" asked a former French minister in a newspaper column recently. "Here" is a situation in which French Jews are being beaten up in the streets of Paris and in which President Jacques Chirac has to write to Queen Elizabeth to apologize for the desecration of British tombs in France, and in which one-third of the French have been pulling for Saddam Hussein to win.The political leaders of France, Germany, and Belgium have stirred up hate. And now they find they have to deal with the results.
An even better question is who brought us here. The former environment minister, Corinne Lepage, lays the blame on the government and an obeisant media for "having wanted to stigmatize American policy in excessive fashion." But it's time to name names.
Mr. Chirac brought us here, as did his foreign minister Dominique de Villepin. In Belgium the foreign, defense and prime ministers--Louis Michel, Andr� Flahaut and Guy Verhofstadt--have brought their country to shame too.
