… and put up a parking lot
: From a new weblog called Pave France [via Stephen Green] comes a wonderful column in the Mirror (quel suprise!) about our current Francophobia. Says Tony Parsons:
I HOPE that the continent of Europe never again needs help from the United States of America.
I hope that there’s never some murderous little tyrant – another Hitler, another Milosevic – that Europe needs help in taming.
I hope that there’s never some economic catastrophe that requires American dollars to make it right, as they did at the end of the Second World War.
I hope that the euro experiment works. I hope that all those peace-loving souls in Belgium, Germany and France can somehow muster an army to protect themselves.
I hope that the continent I live on never again needs to go cap in hand to the Americans.
Because if that black day ever comes, I have the feeling that America might just tell Europe where to go.
On the eve of war, there is a tangible anger in America. But surprisingly little of it is directed against the Iraqis. It is the French who are detested.