The Best Revenge Against France? Ignore It

Michael Lewis says ignore the vain, obstructionist pansies (the men, we still like the women):

We detest only a certain breed of French male, particularly the French male who lives in or near Paris and who realized, at a sickeningly young age, that the way to get ahead was inside the incestuous and corrupt French political system. Were the coalition forces to make a brief detour through France on their way home from Iraq, this character would be their legitimate target.

….French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin is a case in point. De Villepin is the fellow who announced, haughtily, France’s intention to veto Britain’s plan for tests of Iraqi disarmament before Saddam Hussein was given a chance to consider it. In doing so, he sabotaged any last hope of a peaceful solution in Iraq, and alienated even many Americans who might have agreed with his aims.

But what of it? He attracted our attention. To himself! To France! And when we all looked over to see what these funny little people were up to, we discovered that they were looking down at us.

….Jed Babbin, a former U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense, spoke well when he said that “going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion.” In a sentence he isolated and insulted the vanity of the powerful French male while at the same time conveying an admirable air of indifference toward him.

Those of us who cannot summon such wit would do better to remain silent, and pretend that the important French male does not exist. Otherwise we risk giving him exactly what he wants. [Bloomberg]