IT'S ALL OUR FAULT

France, Germany, and Belgium reneg on an obligation to Turkey to spite Bush, and this petulence is Bush's fault. According to J.J. Marshall, anyway. Why do I suspect that if Bush were reneging on said obligation to spite the French, he would still be blaming Bush?

The NATO pact is essentially "I will support my fellow NATO nations in times of need," not "I will support my fellow NATO nations in times of need unless there is a Republican in the White House in which case we will not let them use our bases, air space, or lend them even cursory support as needed."

France and Germany are big boys. Cheating them like children will only allow them to continue to act like children.

I AM TORN BETWEEN INTELLECTUAL HONESTY AND FUNNY

Daniel Drezner writes a thoughtful and thoroughly correct piece on why the argument that the French should fall in line cause we saved their ass in World War II:

Now, this boils down to the notion of indebtedness -- that because the U.S. sacrificed to liberate France during two World Wars, they owe us some gratitude now. The same could be said of Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, etc.

Let's be blunt -- this is a bullshit argument. First of all, what's the statute of limitations on such gratitude? Surely we Americans owe a debt to France for their invaluable assistance during the Revolutionary War -- not to mention the Louisiana Purchase. How much does this place us in France's debt? [But that was more than 200 years ago--ed. World War Two was more than a half-century ago, and an overwhelming majority of Americans and French have no personal memory of that time period. History is history.]

On the other hand, if I completely ignore the point he's making, I can laugh at what The Majority Leader said:

DeLay is trying a more personal approach. "I was at a celebration of India's Independence Day," he told reporters, "and a Frenchman came walking up to me and started talking to me about Iraq, and it was obvious we were not going to agree. And I said, 'Wait a minute. Do you speak German?' And he looked at me kind of funny and said, 'No, I don't speak German.' And I said, 'You're welcome,' turned around and walked off."

Hehe.

MY NEW NON-TROLL FEEDING POLICY

After this post, I will no longer entertain or respond to anyone who levies a charge of hypocrisy without first asking and recieving my opinion on a news item. If after I give my opinion and that opinion is contradictory to something I have said before, I will then gladly elaborate and explain why I do not see a contradiction, or I will revise my statement.

If NYC is denying marching permits on the basis of disagreement with the message, they are wrong for doing so.

That my silence on the matter (unawareness, actually) implied otherwise or can somehow be described as "deafening" suggests not that I am a hypocrite, but that Oliver Willis is deaf, dumb, or both.