Paris — Even on the day Baghdad fell, Parisians I met
badmouthed the U.S. war. America had committed a grave sin against
international diplomacy and law, they said. The liberation of
long-suffering Iraqis leaves them cold. So what? seemed to be the
attitude.
I’ve heard a lot of whining about “all the new problems this war
has caused.” Suddenly the political and humanitarian condition of
Iraq concerns French leaders. How is it that they now know what is
best for the country they didn’t want liberated? Jacques Chirac is
speaking loudly about “reconstructing” Iraq. Okay. Why don’t you
forgive Iraq all those loans you gave Saddam Hussein?
Isn’t it a great humanitarian victory that millions of Iraqis no
longer live under the thumb of a tyrant and terrorist? No, somehow
this is a defeat for humanity, according to the French. The
nonsensical argument — fighting terrorism produces terrorism —
appeals to them greatly. If you ask them — How does leaving
terrorists on the streets safeguard peace? — you won’t get much of
a response. One Parisian frankly told me that “French leaders have
to advocate diplomacy because that’s all we have got. We have no
military power.”
Not even Americans in Paris are cheering America’s toppling of a
tyrant. On Saturday I picked up on the streets a copy of
“parisvoice,” a “magazine for English-speaking Parisians.” It
didn’t take long to find its asinine commentary about the war.
The war violates the “belief in a positive future,” its writer
David Applefield said. “Many Americans in France actively or
passively resist being identified with the decisions and attitudes
of their government. We come from Minnesota and Massachusetts,
Texas, Tennessee and Colorado, Florida and Connecticut, but our
minds and hearts belong to our own personal lands of
distinction.”
Own “your own mind,” urged Applefield. But it is clear he has
lost his. Independence of thought can’t rank too high with him if
he worries that Bush’s unilateral “mentality doesn’t float on the
Seine.” America is guilty of “thuggery,” the “real weapons of mass
destruction just may be the terms used to annihilate our common
sense, our notions of right and wrong…” He worries about the
“reputation and credibility of France, a country whose sole crime
has been the audacity to oppose the omnipotence of the world’s only
superpower.”
Fortunately the war isn’t disrupting Epicurean Parisian life, he
says. “We go on buying our baguettes, walking our dogs,” he writes.
“Just look around Paris and you’ll quickly be able to breathe
comfortably again. The French are reading our greatest authors,
attending our latest films, sharing the research of our most
accomplished thinkers.”
Come on. The most prominent American cultural product I have
seen advertised on the streets of Paris is the movie
Autofocus, a film about a sexual deviant. Signs for it are
ubiquitous.
The French embrace some of the worst elements of American life
and reject the best. They could justly criticize America for having
a ludicrous popular culture. But they don’t. They kind of like it.
America’s virtues, on the other hand, dismay them. A culture
drowning in decadence just won’t stand for American “piety.” That’s
America’s real sin, the French think.
No wonder their magnificent churches remain empty. You won’t
even find kneelers in them. They are basically just museums. A
country built by sword and cross has neither now, and is very proud
of it.
