If France surpassing the U.S. as the principal guardian of human rights?
First, that France is breaking with a tradition tied up with colonialism in which force was used only in the service of strength, that is, to reinforce national interests. For the first time, in Libya and in Mali, force has been used explicitly in the interest of freedom and justice. For the first time since the Battle of Valmy a conscious, deliberate link has been established, and avowed, between the exercise of power and the defense of values greater than those of power.
And, second, that France is taking on not only the moral but also the operational leadership of a just war, sending its best soldiers to stand in for the missing Blue Helmets of the United Nations. It is a strange but undeniable fact that France, with its limited means, its high unemployment, its foreign trade deficit, its habit of coming uncoupled from the train of globalization, is playing the role that one might have expected of the powerful United States. France is setting the geopolitical tone, a function normally preempted by the “official” great powers: the United States, Russia, and China. It is heading up, in other words, another form of globalization, a virtuous, generous variant: the globalization of democracy and peace. It could well become the world’s leading exporter of rights or, if you will, the world’s leading anti-totalitarian power.
The world does not know what to think.
Our larger allies, stunned, are reduced to watching events unfold and expressing support, willingly or grudgingly, for the new direction of international relations. Can an intellectual not known for his chauvinism be forgiven for observing that his country appears to be reconnecting with a form of greatness?
Blowback
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Oui
Schadenfreude on February 5, 2013 at 9:29 PM
IF? IF? Surely it IS?
OldEnglish on February 5, 2013 at 9:33 PM
I hope so…
Sorry, but France won’t even be French anymore in 30 or 40 years and it will because of intellectuals like Bernard-Henri Lévy who are always on the lookout for “fascists”.
ninjapirate on February 5, 2013 at 9:35 PM
Oh please …..
Slow news day ?
Lucano on February 5, 2013 at 9:35 PM
LOL. A penchant for backstabbing does not make for a “guardian of human rights” … unless one is talking about the right to be a lowlife backstabber. France is one of the most untrustworthy nations to have ever existed. They are slime. And they don’t do anything to help anyone but France – and even in that they usually end up stabbing whoever it is in the back, not for any great benefit (not even for themselves), but just because the French get a kick out of stabbing people in the back and seeing the look of surprise on their faces. Anyone who trusts France for anything is an idiot and deserves exactly what they’re going to get.
ROFLMAO! France taking moral leadership? What a joke this guy is. But, Henri-Levi has birds of a feather flocking together in this sentence as France and the despicable, disgusting, dangerous joke of an organization, the UN, are of the same lowlife mold. They deserve each other.
The French crowing about military escapades while Barky throws the US behind them, on his dictat … Yep. This world has sunk so very low, these days. And it’s going to get worse. Much, much worse.
ThePrimordialOrderedPair on February 5, 2013 at 9:47 PM
The day is coming when French Legionnaires will parachute down to save us from our tyrants.
Bishop on February 5, 2013 at 10:03 PM
Well, they aren’t blowing up their citizens with drone attacks, so…
RoadRunner on February 5, 2013 at 10:07 PM
I’m looking forward to years, nay decades, of finishing the exclamation, “Somebody must do something about this, …” with, “France!”
Dusty on February 5, 2013 at 10:23 PM
IIRC, the French Constitution does not have a Bill of Rights. Also, France is and has always been much more of a police state than the US. The police have much more power than they do in the US and the court system is not as perp friendly as the US system is.
farsighted on February 5, 2013 at 10:23 PM
Spot on.
Also, the French do not worry and wring their hands about what other nations think of them. Contrast their attitude with the neurotic navel gazing and introspection the Dems think we should all do about what the world thinks of us. The French don’t give a sh!t what anyone thinks of them. It hasn’t hurt them a bit economically or in their military alliances.
farsighted on February 5, 2013 at 10:31 PM
[ThePrimordialOrderedPair on February 5, 2013 at 9:47 PM]
I do get a kick out of the H.O. this guy’s got about France all because France is helping out a former colony and obviously protecting their interests there. Which, btw, is about as principal world guardian-ish as our helping out our our friends in the Phillipines if or when called upon for assistance.
Little tasks are big things for little minds.
Dusty on February 5, 2013 at 10:32 PM
The French commitment to Afghanistan was minimal at best. They sent a few thousand troops to help train the Afghans.
They basically ignored pleas for more when the crap started hitting the fan there around 2006-07.
Their troops were not allowed to engage in any offensive action, much less offensive action coordinated with other NATO nations. they would only defend themselves in their bases if attacked.
That’s how our NATO “ally” helped us out in Afghanistan after 9-11.
farsighted on February 5, 2013 at 10:37 PM
If France wants to step up and fight the jihad, well that’s great.
If they want to put on airs like they’re shouldering more of the burden than America has, that’s just the French being French.
Rebar on February 5, 2013 at 10:42 PM
Clearly, I wasn’t talking just about this one little situation but France’s history stretching over centuries. Anyone who thinks the French have suddenly changed is … naive, shall we say, to be extra-nice. It’s surprising you would launch into a silly defense of the French right after they pulled off that idiocy in Libya, too, happy to have their Indonesian ally occupying our White House rend our Constitution to help them out.
Yes, I have a thing about the French. I don’t trust them and can’t imagine how anyone could. They have stabbed us in the back over and over and over. Just after we saved their sorry azzes in WWII they turned around and screwed us over with the UNSC and NATO. And that was just the start. Sure, we are partly to blame for allowing them to stay in NATO (in the political wing, where they contributed nothing but used every bit of power they had to thwart us just to be obstinate and stand in the way of US interests). We are even more to blame for letting them back into full NATO membership, especially after all the junk they pulled in NATO and the UN in the runup to the second Iraq War. And this is just one little part of French history, though no different than how the French have acted in everything. We won’t even start talking about Viet Nam … But, the French are always there to criticize us and everyone else, especially those who have to clean up their messes.
You trust the French with anything? Good for you. I don’t. The French have worked too hard to prove their love of backstabbing allies (usually for nothing but the thrill) and their untrustworthy nature to deny them the acknowledgement of their (lack of) character.
ThePrimordialOrderedPair on February 5, 2013 at 10:48 PM
[ThePrimordialOrderedPair on February 5, 2013 at 10:48 PM}
Obviously my comment went right over your head. Next time I'll express my agreement with you in a much simpler way.
Dusty on February 6, 2013 at 12:21 AM
BHL now supports our Iraq war?
John Kettlewell on February 6, 2013 at 12:37 AM
My mistake. I thought you were referring to me in the first sentence. Sorry, Dusty.
ThePrimordialOrderedPair on February 6, 2013 at 12:43 AM
BHL is an idiot. The French have their own reasons for fighting in Mali which is why they are there. Some of the comments here aren’t much better. France’s interests more often than not dovetail with the US and in fighting terrorism they have been more useful than the UK or Israel. The notion that France is somehow an altruistic guarantuer of human rights is ridiculous. It is nice that they are making up for their sordid colonial past but most of Mali’s problems were created by France in the first place and if the North doesn’t get independence from the South they are just promoting a different kind of colonialism.
lexhamfox on February 6, 2013 at 1:21 AM
The French took the lead in getting rid of Gaddafi. How’s that working out? How did it work out in Benghazi?
VorDaj on February 6, 2013 at 3:33 AM
Does France assassinate their citizens based on the word of one unnamed bureaucrat without any oversight?
We have due process here. Sometimes we follow it, sometimes we don’t.
The result may be the same (and deserved), but we still have due process.
Washington Nearsider on February 6, 2013 at 7:31 AM
My mistake. I thought you were referring to me in the first sentence. Sorry, Dusty.
[ThePrimordialOrderedPair on February 6, 2013 at 12:43 AM]
Ah, I see it now. It never occurred to me that it would read as my speaking about anyone other than Levy. My apologies for the ambiguity.
Dusty on February 6, 2013 at 11:17 AM