Quelle Surprise!

A suprisingly fair editorial in the Post on Sunday, all the more so for it's seemingly hostile title. Dominique Moïsi, a senior adviser to the French Institute for International relations, says that there is a limit to what military might can accomplish (true as far as it goes), but also points out that French picque is no more constructive than American belligerence. Now is the time, Moïsi says, for the French to step in, as allies. So far, I am in accord with her, as both of us are "not convinced that the French alternative would be any more successful than the American."




Even more interesting, Moïsi makes reference to the French "trauma" in Algeria. I am confused by her take, though: she seems to imply that it was the extended occupation of the capital, Algiers, that doomed the French effort. My understanding was that it was the ignorant rabble-rousing of the French Left, coupled with first the poor leadership of the Fourth Republic and then the cynical calculations of De Gaulle (who'd decided that France's future lay in the EEC, not in Africa) that rendered null what would otherwise been among the most successful counterguerrilla campaigns in modern history. Truly, in Algeria the French pulled defeat from the jaws of victory, and suffered two attempted military coups as a result of it. While I feel that true Franco-American concordance on Iraq would be to the benefit of all concerned, let us not read the wrong lessons from history.




Nit picked. Happy Monday.