It's a good read. Thanks for the pointer.

But Friedman only hints at a few other issues that are also important.

1) Recall that France and Germany were hoping to assert political leadership in the EU (esp. last fall) and hoped to be seen as the ones who set the direction for them. Many of the smaller European countries balked.

2) France wants the US to have less influence in Europe.

3) France has had a very long tradition of being suspicious of US power in Europe and NATO. Recall that DeGaulle [link|http://www.fas.org/man/nato/news/1999/99031204_tpo.htm|pulled France out of the NATO command structure in 1966]. They did, though, agree with Reagan's decision to deploy Pershing II missiles. That was probably made easier by France's long tradition of having an independent nuclear deterrent, and Mitterrand's quite different from Chirac.

As Friedman says, France wants to be seen as a world power. I agree with him that those in France that advocate policies like these don't seem to look ahead to the consequences. But France's suspicion of US power and desire to be independent is nothing new.

Cheers,
Scott.