Quit the French-bashing and let's get to work, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier told Americans Monday in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal, titled "Letter to America." The sweeping appeal for greater political cooperation between the United States and Europe came a week after the candidate clearly favored by the French lost his bid for the White House, and two years after French opposition to the war on Iraq soured relations between the two historic allies. "I am writing to you as a friend of America," Barnier began, evoking historic and economic ties between the two nations dating back to the US war for independence.
| You mean the one where France used Americans as cannon fodder against their old enemy England? |
"Because of all the things that connect us, I'm concerned about the campaigns against my country, and the recent surge of 'French-bashing'," Barnier wrote. "I'm concerned to see both Americans and Europeans expressing doubts over the future of transatlantic relations, and I'm troubled to see that Europe is misunderstood, if not scorned, in the US," he said. "Let us recognise without animosity that the war in Iraq deeply divided us. The facts have been established and history will decide. But the important thing now is to turn Iraq into a real success story. France has no other aim." |