Now it has produced a new Danton in the form of Bernard-Henri Levy. “B.H.L.,” or Levy, as the New York Times’ Stephen Erlanger, among others, reported, is almost single-handedly responsible for prompting French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, to send in French forces (which are also battling in another civil war in the Ivory Coast under United Nations auspices, firing on Laurent Gbagbo). It seems that Levy brought the members of the Libyan opposition, a motley crew if there ever was one, to Paris to meet with Sarkozy on March 10. He told Sarkozy “there will be a massacre in Benghazi, a bloodbath, and the blood of the
people of Benghazi will stain the flag of France.” Sarkozy, eager for some military action to boost his poll ratings, bit. He is largely responsible for the attacks on Libya.

The question is this: should American policy, let alone French, be determined by an open-shirt, Charvet-wearing French philosophe? George Orwell once observed about James Burnham that intellectuals like to have the whip-hand–they relish the idea of exercising power, of seeing their ideals implemented. The results are usually bloody. See the French revolution.

The wonder of it all is that President Obama got dragged into the war as well.