In honor of Bastille Day I thought it might be a good time to clear the air a little about a couple of stories that many in the blogosphere reported—presumeably to cast our erstwhile allies, the French, in a bad light. The more recent story is a story of an anti-semitic attack on a woman in France that has been revealed to be a hoax:
PARIS, France (AP) — Just days after claiming to be the victim of an attack that stunned France, a young mother confessed to making up the story, authorities said Tuesday.
The woman claimed to have been robbed Friday by a knife-wielding gang that mistook her for a Jew and scrawled swastikas on her body.
But police, finding no clues and no witnesses, brought the woman in for questioning Tuesday, police officials said on condition of anonymity.
The second was a story of sign revision in Charles de Gaulle following the terminal collapse there in May. I reported on it here. Fortunately, Sadly, No! was kind enough to correct me and I made a subsequent update to the post.
Both stories showed the French in a bad light; both stories were leapt on and commented on widely in the blogosphere.
With the mostly hollow lipservice we received from the French in the aftermath of 9/11, lukewarm French support on the war in Afghanistan, and French opposition to the war in Iraq, it may be easy for a lot of us to feel somewhat bitter about the French these days. Is French reluctance to use NATO forces in Iraq and unwillingness to act decisively on the situation in the Sudan principled opposition, looking out for French interests to the exclusion of all else, or just plain opposition to the U. S.? It’s pretty difficult to tell.
In the interests of bonhommie should we give our old ally more benefit of the doubt? Look for more good in the French? Or at least knock it off with the “cheese eating surrender monkeys” stuff for one day?
