The great French thinker, Alexis de Tocqueville, once said, “In politics, a community of hatred is almost always the foundation of friendships.” The American people, through the corporate media, have been exposed to an unprecedented level of antagonism against a long time ally, the French. US President George W. Bush vows to punish them for their temerity. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld virtually snorts when the French are mentioned. The French? Old Europe. A host of Leicester political lights, federal and state legislators alike, rush to their rostrums to denounce the perfidious French, and use their legislative expertise to pass resolutions directing government cafeterias to rename the ubiquitous French fries the “freedom” fries.
For what crimes have the French become the target of US ire? They dared to instruct their diplomats to oppose unilateral, one-sided war in Iraq, and advocated the use of increased weapons inspectors there. They choose to use their diplomacy to deny US dominance on the United Nations Security Council. Their ultimate offense then, was daring to use the UN structure to promote their own national views, rather than blind submission to the will of the world’s sole superpower. Sacre Bleu! How dare they! How dare they not bow to the imperial might of the US of A. The French have become the butt of offensive jokes in American life that are tantamount to calling someone “unbathed” or “cowardly,” something accelerated by the tone emerging from the White House and the State Department.
Why this level of anger, of vitriol, of hatred? Why not a similar response to German diplomatic differences? One suspects the reasons lie in history, and perhaps in human psychology. Were it not for the French, the United States might not exist today, at least in this form. The French sent soldiers from France and its colonies to fight for the Americans against the long-time arch enemies, the British, during the American Revolution. Think back to Shakespeare’s play, Henry the Fifth, for an example of Anglo-Franco enmity. If the French had not joined the American Anti-Royalist enterprise, this region of the world would be something like the United Colonies of British America. When the US leaped into the Vietnam adventure, it did so in part to protect the remnants of a failing French colonial regime. It also sought its own economic interest, of course. Left unspoken though, was a kind of gentleman’s agreement, an unspoken acknowledgement between White republics, to dominate and exploit an Asian nation, Vietnam.
From the American perspective, that old quasi-colonial gentleman’s agreement was broken over the issue of Iraq. France was expected to sit silently by and let their big brother do its thing. When it did not, the American elite and its corporate media launched into a vicious attack against them, which hinted at their betrayal.
What France recognizes, however, is something that the US is still struggling with. France, due in large part to its colonial past in Asia and northern Central Africa, is a White nation no more. Millions of her citizens hail from their former colonial outposts and have non-Gaelic names, but feel through education, culture and custom, part of the French Republic. Meanwhile, the United States, at least through its present administration, thinks, acts, and speaks as if it is still a White republic, ignoring or downplaying the millions of non-White, non-European people who populate the state.
The US remains a Herrenvolk democracy in essence, if not in law, and seeks to reestablish colonial domination in several parts of the world, especially the Middle East. It sees itself as an empire, and thus expects submission. France has moved past these imperial pretensions. May the US someday outgrow its own delusion, and lay off the French. From death row, this is Mumia Abu Jamal.
These commentaries are produced by Noel Hanrahan for Prison Radio.