no war in the offing according to Powell

[Michael Eisenstadt]

CADAOBH@aol.com wrote:
> 
> Vive la France!  Vive la Difference!
> 
> wj

Wayne,

What difference? I am totally serious. I read Tom Friedman's
article in today's NYTimes about how wrong the French are
about whatever and it DIDNT make any sense. Why you ask? 
Because I listen to France-Info, the 24/7 newstation in 
France, through the computer, every day and their 
viewpoint is NOT as reported here. You recently wrote 
about the French not wanting a regime change in Iraq for
commercial reasons. i dont believe that they HAVE much
commercial intercourse with Iraq. if i understand their 
position they DO want Saddam disarmed, they just don't 
want to do it by raining down smart bombs on the country 
believing there are alternatives. in other words, their 
attitude is similar to many here in US. they seem to 
believe that Saddam can be forced to give up his nasty 
stuff in order for his regime to survive and he, Saddam, 
to keep on being the beloved leedah. and they know better
than yahoos like Bush and Cheney how unlikely a western 
occupation would change anything in a traditionally 
corrupt Arab country. democracy comes only to countries
that are culturally ready for it. 

as for the differences between US & France, there are 
hardly any, to listen to their news station, be it cultural 
or political or anything else. virtually the only 
difference is that they dont speak English. they seem 
totally hip to everything going on in general and 
everywhere including the US. one striking difference is 
that their top politicians are all products of elite 
schooling and can express banalities on a very high
level.

another difference is that even their right-wing government
(the French more often than not vote right wing) is committed
to a serious effort to maintain a real social safety-net,
at least for French citizens.

other than these 3 striking differences (speaking French, 
maintaining a good social safety-net and their politicians
being very glib highly-educated bullshit artists), it is 
samo-samo as far as i can tell.

Mike