France Bashing, Again!

[Octafish]

Robert "Busted Iran-Contra and all he got was fired from Newsweek" Parry" represents what's best about American journalism -- a desire to tell the Truth. Here's his latest, worthy of passing around to friend and foe alike:

France Bashing, Again!

By Robert Parry
October 4, 2004

Like an ex-high school football star who flopped as an adult, George W. Bush is flashing back on his glory days of winter 2002-2003 when bashing the French was a sure-fire way to get the crowd cheering.

Battered from his first presidential debate with John Kerry, Bush returned to a favorite golden oldie of baiting anyone -- in this case, Kerry -- who suggests that Washington should care what the rest of the world thinks. Bush apparently wants to make “France” the new political f-word.

On Oct. 1, the day after the debate, Bush told an audience in Allentown, Pa., that Kerry was demanding “that America has to pass some sort of ‘global test’ before we can use American troops to defend ourselves.” Bush then added: “The use of troops to defend America must never be subject to a veto by countries like France.”

SNIP...

Here’s what Kerry actually said in response to a question about whether he would use preemptive military force, which is defined as an attack on an enemy that is preparing to attack but has yet to launch an attack: “No president, through all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America. But if and when you do it, … you’ve got to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test, where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you’re doing what you’re doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.”

CONTINUED...

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/100404.html

[sui generis]

1. unfortunately what bush is doing could be effective

He's playing on the "we're the greatest" brainwashing that many of us received in our formative educational years.

We're the gold standard of politics, democracy, decency, and everything in the entire universe. Global government is communism. blah blah blah blah.

Many people want to believe that we're supreme, but if that's the case then maybe they should look at how the Euro is trading against the dollar and get back to me . . .