"On the other hand, I have."

[ebonlock]

I try to tune into 60 Minutes when I'm actually home on a Sunday evening, and I always watch straight through to the end with Andy Rooney's piece. I don't always agree with him, but I usually at least respect where he's coming from. I found last night's piece on France and the upcoming conflict with Iraq intriguing:
"France's Unpaid Debt"

And an interesting conglomeration of facts and figures for those interested:
http://www.eriposte.com/war_peace/iraq/iraq-scoreboard.htm

Comments

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Wow, very cool. I liked Rooney's thing, even if it means I probably agree with the hawks who think France are a bunch of wimps right now.

Re:

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Wow, very cool. I liked Rooney's thing, even if it means I probably agree with the hawks who think France are a bunch of wimps right now.

I'm not sure I totally agree with him, but he does have some valid points. And..well..I've never liked the French so I'm biased.

[centerfire.livejournal.com]

The thing is, I disagree that the French are being wimps -- at least in this case.

In the current situation, the French are brazenly asserting their national self-interest. They want to preserve the lucrative oil contracts they've got with Iraq. They want to act as a check against the diplomatic and military might of the United States, the better to maintain their own credibility and international clout. And they want to align themselves with Germany within the European Union, to assert Franco-German dominance of that body. The French are lecturing the United States about pre-emptive military action... but they're the same people who blew up a Greenpeace boat. They're complaining about American unilateralism and imperialism... while engaged in a colonial-style police action down in the Ivory Coast.

So what rankles about the behavior of the French, in this instance, is that they're doing all this while castigating the United States for acting in its national (and international, and humanitarian, unless you think the world and the Iraqi people are better off with Saddam Hussein on the global stage) interest.

What rankles is not that the French are usually cheese-eating surrender monkeys, but that they're flaming hypocrites.

And, also, that the shallow end of the anti-war intellectual pool (which is, sadly, most of it) insists on pointing to French intransigence, here, as a Good Thing(tm).

[mallen.livejournal.com]

As they say in the House of Commons, "Hear, hear."

That's why my new pro-war motto is: "Iraq first, then France."

Re:

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

As they say in the House of Commons, "Hear, hear."

That's why my new pro-war motto is: "Iraq first, then France."

Don't you boys have your own journals you can spew pro-war propaganda in? }:)

[centerfire.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's only propaganda if I'm wrong. :)

Re:

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's only propaganda if I'm wrong. :)

Of course that's assuming that there's a "wrong" and "right" in this case. Personally I see it as all shades of gray, and since it's my LJ and I enjoy being a corrupt dictator (though gods how I'd love to get my "psychotic" rating back *sigh*), what I say goes *G*

[murdoch.livejournal.com]

Well then, after Iraq and France, bomb Artemisia (with overcoats, and pork sausages, and capitalist propaganda).

If they're really lucky, though, we'll start dropping Merry, and Pippin, and...

"I thought that 'Little Boy' was Elijah and 'Fat Man' was Peter Jackson. And 'Trinity' just had *soooo* many tasty possibilities involving strawberry bubble bath...".

Re:

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

"Visit Artemisia: Where tasty Hobbits drop from the sky right into your lap!"

[centerfire.livejournal.com]

I've actually been on a "Riyadh delenda est" kick for a while.

[mallen.livejournal.com]

Here's an essay I read in Newsweek:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/873553.asp

A better analysis in the Economist:

https://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1589672

Re:

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

I found both quite interesting, thanks for sharing those!

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Wait wait wait. The country that didn't want to get into WWII because they had lucrative contracts with the Nazi government (And the same country that sold THE EVIL SATANIC DICTATOR most of his war technology) is complaining about the business entanglements of the French?
And the country that is no longer a British protectorate because the French sent battle support thinks they're not showing enough gratitude for D-Day?

Re:

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Wait wait wait. The country that didn't want to get into WWII because they had lucrative contracts with the Nazi government (And the same country that sold THE EVIL SATANIC DICTATOR most of his war technology) is complaining about the business entanglements of the French?

Today's secret word is "hypocrisy"...

Oh and I adored this little gem from Rupert Murdoch regarding the "just" and "moral" decision to invade Iraq: "The greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy, if you could put it that way, would be $20 a barrel for oil. That's bigger than any tax cut in any country." Apparently he's of the opinion that "...the price of oil would be one of the war's main benefits."

So what if hundreds of thousands of people die? As long as we can all fill up for less at the pump, that's the important thing.

And he wonders why his FOX news team got ejected from Iraq...

But back to Mr. Rooney, I was particularly intrigued by his commentary because of it's provocative end. So does Mr. Rooney oppose the war? And if he does, why be so circumspect about it? Have his overloards at CBS told him to tow the line, much as they did after 9/11? It does leave me wondering.