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06-01-2003, 11:35 AM
Lake Evian, France. Posh resort hotel. The world's wealthiest leaders and their entoragés. Talk about a party... thats the kind James Bond would have crashed to foil some assassination plot then afterwards hooked-up with some blond Ukranian intern.
So whats going on here? More than a few countries opposed the US before the war. The two we heard about most are France and Germany. Why has the US cuddled back up with France so soon and left Germany on high ground? The US is pulling its troops from an already economically troubled Germany as a direct result of their opposition to the war. Why was so much of American media directed at playing up the anti-French sentiment and nowhere near as loud about the very real economic uppercut we gave an already on-the-ropes Germany?
G8, has been criticized for being a 'playboy' club of world leaders, though this year Chirac invited what could be construed as 'token' countries. To his credit, were they token or not, Chirac must agree with the criticism to some extent to have done so.
Protesters attended, of course. Both varieties. One group became violent ultimately turning on themselves, while another group lit 50 bonfires around Lake Evian. If I were a world leader up in a chateu, I would much rather appreciate seeing those bonfires from my view of the lake, rather than having to worry about getting home safely.
So whats going on here? More than a few countries opposed the US before the war. The two we heard about most are France and Germany. Why has the US cuddled back up with France so soon and left Germany on high ground? The US is pulling its troops from an already economically troubled Germany as a direct result of their opposition to the war. Why was so much of American media directed at playing up the anti-French sentiment and nowhere near as loud about the very real economic uppercut we gave an already on-the-ropes Germany?
G8, has been criticized for being a 'playboy' club of world leaders, though this year Chirac invited what could be construed as 'token' countries. To his credit, were they token or not, Chirac must agree with the criticism to some extent to have done so.
Protesters attended, of course. Both varieties. One group became violent ultimately turning on themselves, while another group lit 50 bonfires around Lake Evian. If I were a world leader up in a chateu, I would much rather appreciate seeing those bonfires from my view of the lake, rather than having to worry about getting home safely.