Crimea: The Latest Front for French Rambos
(Le Quotidiend'Oran,
Algeria)
"The trio of French Rambos - Hollande,
Fabius and Le Drian, are showing again that they are ready to talk with
gunpowder. ... We imagine that upon hearing the news, Vladimir Putin has lost
sleep, the Russian army is in a panic, and the terrified Russian people are
calling for divine protection. ... Washington and Moscow must have doubled over
with laughter upon learning of the French defense minister's announcement. ... show a little modesty and realism, and stop playing a frog who wants to be bigger than an ox."
The trio of French Rambos
- Hollande, Fabius and Le Drian, are
showing again that they are ready to talk with gunpowder. This time against
Russia. To demonstrate their determination, they have let it be known that
France is ready to send four combat aircraft to Poland and the Baltic countries
to deal with any Russian military threat against them. [Francois Hollande is prime
minister, Laurent Fabius is foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian is defense
minister].
We imagine that upon hearing the news, Vladimir
Putin has lost sleep, the Russian army is in a panic, and the terrified Russian
people are calling for divine protection. More seriously, by considering
sending French planes as proof that France is determined to counter the Russian
"expansionism" suggested by the Ukrainian crisis, the Paris trio are
talking nonsense and have become a laughing stock. The military strike against
Qaddafi and his regime ordered by Nicolas Sarkozy, and
the missions that the trio themselves have mounted in Mali and Central Africa, show
that in their minds, by reacting militarily, they believe Russia will be
intimidated by their firmness.
Washington and Moscow must have doubled over
with laughter upon learning of the French defense minister's announcement. Neither
capital is fooled by the overzealous "firmness" that Paris manifests
every time there is an international crisis. Obama and Putin know that this is
the way the French trio seek to impose France as a key player in redefining the
global order - an order that their two states negotiate bilaterally in times of
crisis whenever they indirectly confront one another by supporting one of the
warring camps.
Hollande is warmongering to maintain the
illusion that France is still a great power having a say in what happens
outside its borders. He certainly thinks that doing so confers this status on
France vis-à-vis America and Russia. They, however, have shown him that they
take little account of French claims, having inflicted a stinging slap to Paris
by leaving them out of their talks on the Syrian crisis.
It isn't French saber rattling that will
influence the Ukrainian crisis, which Russians and Americans are negotiating among
themselves. Moreover, the ranting is hardly appreciated or approved by France's
European partners, who are angry that Paris is playing at being a great power when
it no longer has the means.
The principle of imposing sanctions on Russia
is one thing, but making military threats against it is another - which even
the Americans aren't contemplating. The French trio would be more credible if
they devoted the energy they are wasting on global affairs to trying to halt
the economic slump France faces, which paradoxically, despite calling for
all-out intervention, is forcing it to cut its military budget. Mr. Hollande,
Mr. Fabius, show a
little modesty and realism, and stop playing a frog who wants to be bigger than
an ox.
