France – Shades of Napolean?

Of course, we do not expect to see the French Tricolor marching on Moscow anytime soon, but recent military activity by the French in key hot spots around the globe suggests a different way of thinking by President Nicolas Sarkozy. France? Military activity? Putting these words together in recent decades in the same sentence generally suggested that the speaker was beginning to tell a joke. Since World War II, scene of one of the great debacles in military history, and the following decades of French imperial implosion (North Africa, SE Asia) in the 1950s and 1960s, France has received very little credit for its military history. Although the French Resistance in World War II generally is seen as very credible, it is notable that they were resisting the victorious German Army. Besides, usually the Resistance is mentioned in the same breath as Marshal Petain, the much-maligned leader of the Vichy France government. Vichy and “Nazi collaborator” are generally thought to mean the same thing. Such a dim view of the French military and the valor of its soldiers may not be fair, but such is the Frenchman’s fate in the world of sound bites and public images.

Recent history has not helped this image. President Francois Mitterand (1981-1995) was perceived as “weak” in the face of the tough-talking tandem of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. President Jacques Chirac (1995-2007) was rarely a friend of the United States, and was often seen as being too cozy with Russia or some other country that did not see eye-to-eye with the United States. That’s just it, of course – much of the perception of the French military and the French people has been cast in the opaque view of what supposedly has been best for the United States. If France was acting in its own interests, and those interests were counter to the United States, France was considered weak, anti-American, and “socialist.” This reached its height in the backlash against France opposing the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003 – remember “Freedom Fries?” Generally (and sadly) a Frenchman’s discussion about diplomacy was always seen as an affront to American interests.

So it is with great interest that we seen French jets attacking government positions in Libya, and French troops in the Ivory Coast shocking President Laurent Gbagbo into thinking about surrender. Wow. Certainly, the French have been active all along (think about all of those French peacekeepers who have worn the light blue helmet of the UN all of those years). But Sarkosy is looking to be a bit more proactive, forceful, and leading. Let’s sit back and see how it goes…..

He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat –Napolean Bonaparte