Soul Rebel
24th March 2003, 22:24
Nightmares for 3/20 by Allan S. Church:
Hold those French fries, please!
By the time this appears in print, President Bush's deadline will have passed. By this morning, 12 hours after that deadline, American and British military action may already have begun. There is little reason to suppose either that Saddam Hussein & Co. will suddenly lose their nerve and slip away into exile or sanctuary, or that we will wait long before doing what we have said we will do.
The die is cast. Whether one agrees with what seems to some George Bush's obsessive determination to attack Iraq, our first concern has to be with our military personnel entering a theater of war. Many of us know young men and women whose lives are at risk in the Middle East and regardless of our views on this war, we certainly wish for their safety. We appreciate the risks they take on behalf of all of us in following their duty.
Americans, though, should be concerned that so many of us are utterly determined to believe the insistence that there is some connection between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein. Bush repeats the two names together at every opportunity. We should also worry at the increasing intolerance of whosoever dares to question Bush, or who expresses skepticism or downright disagreement.
Count me in the last category.
Count me also as dismayed at the attitudes coming out of Washington which have led to such nonsense as renaming French Fries as "Freedom Fries" or, as happened down in Palm Beach, dumping French wine into the gutters. French Fries, of course, are not particularly French. While Marie Antoinette, when presented with a potato plant, wore the flowers in her hair and created a court fad, it was years before Thomas Jefferson served fried potatoes in the White House. A London restaurateur invented fish and chips in about 1865 - but he didn't blame the French.
It wasn't until World War I when American soldiers bought slices of fried potatoes from street vendors in Belgium and France that they became known as French fries - and they are only so called in this country. The average American now consumes about 60 pounds of potatoes a year, mostly fried.
Can you seriously imagine the French eating French fries?
Bashing the French is easy. They're not here, they don't speak English, and they've got a conservative president who expresses his opposition to our conservative president. Bashing is the first step toward demonizing the French, something our government has already done with Saddam Hussein and the Axis of Evil (I always hear the Dragnet theme behind those words).
I don't agree with President Bush's Iraq policy. We should not be taking any sort of military action against anyone without the United Nations sanction: that has been the thrust of United States foreign policy since 1948 when we signed the charter of the UN.
And it is embarrassing to be bashing entire nations for the attitudes of their leaders. In France, President Jacques Chirac opposes Bush's intention to remove Hussein by force. Criticize Chirac, if you like, but don't slam all the French. Many French people disagree with him, just as many Americans disagree with Bush and English with Blair.
I wrote to a French friend Tuesday. I needed to tell him that just because my president was criticizing his and renaming French fries didn't mean that I thought less of him or agreed with Bush.
He e-mailed me back. He has not has been an admirer of M. Chirac, whom he considers a shameless manipulative politician without principles. He did, though, agree with Chirac about Bush's headlong rush to war. But, he added, now that that matter has been decided, he hopes Bush will succeed in freeing Iraq from Saddam and helping the democratic process in that country.
The point to remember is that no culture is monolithic, even in times of stress. Disagreeing with one another is basic to democracy. Jacque Chirac, who opposes Bush policy, will be succeeded eventually by someone else, just as will George Bush. Don't let yourself by pushed by incendiary verbiage into believing too much ill of anyone with whom you need to continue living or even of your enemy. The adage applies as much between one citizen and another as between one great nation and another.
French fries notwithstanding.
Allan S. Church is editorial page editor of the Record-Journal. To reach him by e-mail: [email protected]
Hold those French fries, please!
By the time this appears in print, President Bush's deadline will have passed. By this morning, 12 hours after that deadline, American and British military action may already have begun. There is little reason to suppose either that Saddam Hussein & Co. will suddenly lose their nerve and slip away into exile or sanctuary, or that we will wait long before doing what we have said we will do.
The die is cast. Whether one agrees with what seems to some George Bush's obsessive determination to attack Iraq, our first concern has to be with our military personnel entering a theater of war. Many of us know young men and women whose lives are at risk in the Middle East and regardless of our views on this war, we certainly wish for their safety. We appreciate the risks they take on behalf of all of us in following their duty.
Americans, though, should be concerned that so many of us are utterly determined to believe the insistence that there is some connection between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein. Bush repeats the two names together at every opportunity. We should also worry at the increasing intolerance of whosoever dares to question Bush, or who expresses skepticism or downright disagreement.
Count me in the last category.
Count me also as dismayed at the attitudes coming out of Washington which have led to such nonsense as renaming French Fries as "Freedom Fries" or, as happened down in Palm Beach, dumping French wine into the gutters. French Fries, of course, are not particularly French. While Marie Antoinette, when presented with a potato plant, wore the flowers in her hair and created a court fad, it was years before Thomas Jefferson served fried potatoes in the White House. A London restaurateur invented fish and chips in about 1865 - but he didn't blame the French.
It wasn't until World War I when American soldiers bought slices of fried potatoes from street vendors in Belgium and France that they became known as French fries - and they are only so called in this country. The average American now consumes about 60 pounds of potatoes a year, mostly fried.
Can you seriously imagine the French eating French fries?
Bashing the French is easy. They're not here, they don't speak English, and they've got a conservative president who expresses his opposition to our conservative president. Bashing is the first step toward demonizing the French, something our government has already done with Saddam Hussein and the Axis of Evil (I always hear the Dragnet theme behind those words).
I don't agree with President Bush's Iraq policy. We should not be taking any sort of military action against anyone without the United Nations sanction: that has been the thrust of United States foreign policy since 1948 when we signed the charter of the UN.
And it is embarrassing to be bashing entire nations for the attitudes of their leaders. In France, President Jacques Chirac opposes Bush's intention to remove Hussein by force. Criticize Chirac, if you like, but don't slam all the French. Many French people disagree with him, just as many Americans disagree with Bush and English with Blair.
I wrote to a French friend Tuesday. I needed to tell him that just because my president was criticizing his and renaming French fries didn't mean that I thought less of him or agreed with Bush.
He e-mailed me back. He has not has been an admirer of M. Chirac, whom he considers a shameless manipulative politician without principles. He did, though, agree with Chirac about Bush's headlong rush to war. But, he added, now that that matter has been decided, he hopes Bush will succeed in freeing Iraq from Saddam and helping the democratic process in that country.
The point to remember is that no culture is monolithic, even in times of stress. Disagreeing with one another is basic to democracy. Jacque Chirac, who opposes Bush policy, will be succeeded eventually by someone else, just as will George Bush. Don't let yourself by pushed by incendiary verbiage into believing too much ill of anyone with whom you need to continue living or even of your enemy. The adage applies as much between one citizen and another as between one great nation and another.
French fries notwithstanding.
Allan S. Church is editorial page editor of the Record-Journal. To reach him by e-mail: [email protected]