No Royal Future For France?

The socialist party candidate for the presidency of France, Segolene Royal, appears to be headed for a defeat, according to press reports. Even those who are supposedly in her corner appear to be writing her off as a lost cause.

Fellow Socialist and former Prime Minister Michel Rocard appeared Friday to admit as much when he suggested that only by teaming up with one of her rivals can Royal hope to beat conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, who has kept a step ahead of her in polls all year.

Time is running out for Royal to swing the many undecided voters her way: The first round of voting is April 22, with a run-off on May 6.

"The feeling today is that she's rather on the way to losing the election," said Dominique Reynie of Paris' elite Institute of Political Sciences. Her victory "seems less and less likely," added BVA Institute pollster Jerome Sainte-Marie.

Royal herself brushed off Rocard's suggestion that she and centrist Francois Bayrou join forces to keep out Sarkozy, a pro-American former minister.

"There will be no dealings on my part," she said.

Her worst enemy now may be the polls. Although they still place her second, some have also suggested that only Bayrou could rally enough voters to beat Sarkozy in a run-off. The trouble is Bayrou may never get that far. Polls place him third, which would not get him past the first round.

Rocard did not spell out how a Royal-Bayrou alliance might work in practice. But the fact that the Socialist Party elder — even a somewhat centrist one — suggested that she may not win alone was the latest sign that the election may be slipping from Royal's grasp.

"We must block the road to Sarkozy. It's urgent," Rocard told RTL radio. "I hope that Segolene will be strong enough, but I have the greatest doubt — looking at the polls — that she can win alone in the run-off. And the idea of running alone in these conditions seems to me to be extremely dangerous, almost suicidal."

I guess the bikini trick didn't work, eh? (I expect that her "motherly listening" skills (as the article points out later) are less effective than she had hoped. That or the voters looked at some of her ideas and figured she was completely out of her league - or mind.) The voting hasn't happened yet, so anything could happen. But things don't look too good for Royal at the moment.

Information From Informants

I really have been posting very lightly for the past week or so. These computer problems have been driving me up the wall. But never fear, faithful readers. My vast network of informants never sleeps! They continue to comb the world press looking for signs of the Animal Uprising™. And they have found several incidents that must be brought to the world's attention. (We don't pay these folks enough for all their good work. In fact, we don't pay them at all.)

Item: When people surrender to the animals, they go on the payroll. An animal - in this case a bird - adopts the vanquished human and takes over feeding it. As we see here in this picture in Britain's Sun newspaper. Oh sure, the guy tries to say it was him befriending the bird, but that's all a smoke screen. In actuality, the bird is feeding the man.

Item: On the genetic engineering front, the Animal Uprising™ has mastered a new creation. Not content with their earlier success with the seven-wheel drive deer, they have gone on to even bigger - or at least more numerous - things. The 26-toed cat.

Her human family noticed there was something different with the three-month-old kitten when she started scratching more than other cats.

"You would sort of want to wear boxing gloves when you play with her," says Kaelene Gerrard, who lives with her partner Eli Eliu and daughters Mercy, six, and 12-year-old Shardae.

She examined the frisky feline's paws and did a double take at what she found.

"We counted and then recounted but we had it right the first time," she says.

Extra has seven toes on each front paw and six toes on each back paw - instead of the normal five on each.

"Her mum Star is a normal cat but her grandmother had six toes on each paw as well and so does her brother. But we've never even heard of a kitten with seven toes on each front paw," says Kaelene.

"Extra's a good climber and runs really fast.

A very disturbing development. Think of the daring heists cat burglars equipped with all that extra traction will be able to pull off.

Item: Giant Hell Hornets awaiting French surrender. Gigantic killer hornets are running - er, flying - amok in France. It is only a matter of time until the French throw up their hands and wave the white flag.

Swarms of giant hornets renowned for their vicious stings and skill at massacring honeybees have settled in France.

And there are now so many of the insects that entomologists fear it will just be a matter of time before they cross to Britain.

Global warming has largely been blamed for the survival and spread of the Asian Hornet, Vespa velutina, which is thought to have arrived in France from the Far East in a consignment of Chinese pottery in late 2004.

Thousands of football-shaped hornet nests are now dotted all over the forests of Aquitaine, the south-western region of France hugely popular with British tourists.

"Their spread across French territory has been like lightning," said Jean Haxaire, the entomologist who originally identified the new arrival.

He said he had recently seen 85 nests in the 40-odd miles which separate the towns of Marmande and Podensac, in the Lot et Garonne department where the hornets were first spotted.

It isn't global warming, it's attempted global domination by the animal overlords. The only reason the French haven't surrendered already is that they can't find the queen in charge.

All of the these were sent in by the vast Crabitat Informant Network. Keep up the good work, folks. Consider your pay doubled!

French Prison Cuisine

Inmate. It's what's for dinner.

PARIS, Jan 5 (Reuters Life!) - A French prisoner who killed his cellmate "very probably" ate some of the victim's body parts, a prosecutor in the northern town of Rouen said on Friday.

The victim's body was discovered in a prison cell on Wednesday, with a large wound to the chest. The alleged killer, who shared the cell, told investigators he had removed and eaten his victim's heart.

Investigators initially discounted the possibility of cannibalism after the victim's heart was "found intact in its usual place and in its membrane which was also intact," Rouen state prosecutor Joseph Schmit said in a statement.

There were, however, other bits missing and unaccounted for. I wonder if the diner had some fava beans and a nice chianti to go with dinner. (Oh boy, am I gonna hear about this one from my daughter-in-law!)

Mon Dieu!

This is un désastre! This is une tragédie! The world is surely coming to an end. There is a truffle shortage in France! The situation is so dire that they have officials scouring the countryside looking for counterfeit truffles! Pigs are out of work and prices are skyrocketing.

In the truffle markets of Provence, conditions couldn't be riper for truffle fraud: Worldwide demand for the homely delicacy — a rare fungus that retails for $1,200 a pound in upscale Parisian gourmet shops — is rocketing at the same time that truffle production is plummeting because of the worst droughts in modern European history.

Roudiere prowls markets and peruses restaurant menus in his Provencal district in search of cheap Chinese imports — a different biological variety — masquerading as French black truffles, or of French rejects being peddled as premium "black diamonds."

"It's hard to tell the quality of something full of mud, even for people who know what to look for," said Roudiere, one of the top truffle specialists at the department of competition, consumption and fraud prevention, a wing of the finance ministry. "Since it's difficult to identify, it's easy to counterfeit."

Richerenches, a village of 300 inhabitants about an hour's drive north of Avignon, has the largest fresh truffle market in France. Wholesale prices typically triple at year's end as the holiday season brings increased demand. This year, dirt-encrusted French black truffles are selling to wholesalers for up to $600 a pound, half of what they'll fetch when they're resold retail. A pound of Chinese truffles wholesale costs about $60.

Shrinking supply is also driving up prices. Over the past four seasons, truffle production in Provence has plummeted 70 percent, from 33,000 pounds harvested in the winter of 2002 to 9,680 pounds last year, according to ministry records. Truffle production nationwide last year was about 74,000 pounds, half the yields of a decade ago. Neighboring Italy and Spain also report diminished truffle yields because of dry weather.

Farmers have abandoned using the traditional method of truffle hunting and now use dogs instead of pigs to find the mud-filled treats. But who knew the Chinese could counterfeit even truffles? What's the world coming to? Now we finally understand why the French are withdrawing their special forces from Afghanistan. They must guard that which defines France itself! One has to have one's priorities, after all.

French Surrender, Retreat

The French Defense Minister has announced that France will withdraw special forces troops from Afghanistan. This comes at a time when commanders there are literally begging for additional troops from NATO.

KABUL (AFP) - French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has announced that France would withdraw hundreds of its special forces from Afghanistan within the next few weeks.

"We'll pull our special forces out of Afghanistan in the coming weeks," Alliot-Marie told reporters during her visit to the Afghan capital Kabul.

She was referring to some 200 French special forces stationed in eastern Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, aimed at hunting down Taliban fighters in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

France has deployed a total of 2,000 troops in Afghanistan, with the remainder serving in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Seven members of the French special forces have been killed in action in the war-ravaged country, while 12 others have been wounded since their deployment……

….The proposed French withdrawal comes when ISAF commanders facing an unexpected Taliban resistance have been demanding more troops to be deployed in the south of Afghanistan where Taliban are most active.

This would be Jacques Chirac's way of shouldering the burden of NATO. White flags weigh a lot, apparently.

A Weird Moment

Jacques Chirac says he agrees with the US that there is no point in talking to Syria. As in the president of France.

France and the United States agree there is no point in talking to Syria because the conditions for an honest dialogue do not exist, French President Jacques Chirac said Wednesday.

Chirac's comments come a day after U.S. National Security Adviser Steven Hadley said that there was no point in Israel holding negotiations with Syria as long as Damascus continues to support and facilitate terrorism.

U.S. President George W. Bush is under strong domestic pressure to talk to Syria and Iran in an effort to reduce sectarian violence and avert civil war in Iraq.

Speaking after a NATO summit in Latvia, Chirac said he was always in favour of dialogue in principle provided it led to results and was based on honesty and a commitment to carry out what was agreed.

"In the current state of affairs, this is not exactly the characteristic of the dialogue which some European countries have started with Syria. I deplore that," Chirac said.

"I understand that the American president's position is exactly the same as France's," Chirac said.

No, I am not putting too much stock in this just yet. France, and Chirac in particular, have a long record of double dealing and perfidious behavior. Still, it's a jolt to see Chirac acting as if actually understands reality on the ground as opposed to his usual behavior of believing in his wishes rather than fact.

Are You Really Sure You Want This Job?

I posted about Segolene Royal winning the Socialist party nomination for president of France. Now comes this item from American Thinker. Thomas Lifson takes a look at the financial destruction that the Airbus A-380 debacle is causing in the French and European economy. One has to wonder after reading this: are you really sure you want to win this office when this kind of economic ruin is facing you?

French economic growth is slumping and the problems at Airbus are getting blamed for it. The two year delay in delivery of the A380 super jumbo is reverberating throughout the French and EU economies. Politics, always a factor at the mammoth “social enterprise,” continues to intrude, as fear of unemployment and fear of failure motivate politicians to take measures dumping yet more tax money into Airbus.

The aerospace business, at the level occupied by Airbus and Boeing, is mind-bogglingly complex, technologically sophisticated, and extremely large in scale. Inevitably, the national interests of great nations are at stake in the fate of companies and even products. The business generates and perfects new technology consistently, literally living on the leading edge of innovation. Its products are a key part of the driving force of globalization.

This business really matters in terms of its leverage on the way the world grows and changes. That is why I have devoted an extraordinary amount of time and space to coverage of Airbus since the A380 began having its public troubles.

The two year delivery delay (announced in steps) is having consequences for many other companies with their own employees, cash flow worries, and futures to navigate. They, too, have suppliers, employees, and communities. The food chain is very large and long.

The scale is so great that it is starting to affect France and the EU. The full effect will be felt some time in the future.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the UK Telegraph writes,

The French economy slumped in the third quarter as the Airbus crisis began to exact its toll, dousing hopes that Europe would take over as world’s growth engine as America slows. [....]

Jean Michel-Six, an economist of Standard & Poor’s, said French exports were suffering a loss of global market share due to high labour costs and the strong euro. “I am afraid that loss of exports is the major factor behind this bad surprise, and Airbus may be starting to play a role. Airbus deliveries generate $1.5bn (£1.01bn) a month for French exports and this is now in question. There had originally been plans to deliver 25 of the A380 jumbos in 2007 and instead there will be just one.”

Prime minister Dominique de Villepin was caught flat-footed by the data after playing up the French recovery “miracle” earlier this year. “Sadly we’re seeing a pause in growth but this should inspire us to yet more grit and determination,” he said yesterday.

There is almost no chance of France meeting the growth rate of 2.5pc predicted by the European Commission for 2007. The European Central Bank is expected to press ahead next month with a quarter point rise in interest rates to 3.5pc, arguing excess credit has swamped the system with excess liquidity.

There is a lot more. But Airbus, French politics and the European union are all taking a bad, bad hit from this. It is very likely to lead to a crisis with the WTO somewhere down the line as more and more money is pumped into Airbus to keep it afloat. It will be seen, rightfully, as a government subsidy. This is a real mess for Europe in general.

A Socialist Named Royal

Kind of an ironic combination, isn't it? Segolene Royal has won the Socialist party's nomination for president of France. She rather handily beat out two challengers, apparently and will stand in the next election. Interestingly, her win was based on bucking the traditional system of French politics where candidates are decided on in Gauloise smoke-filled rooms. She made an appeal directly to the voters and won when the votes got counted.

The win means Royal will avoid a possibly divisive second round ballot against former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius and former Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn — two members of the party's old guard who had challenged her.

"The results show rather clearly the fact that there will only be one round, and we can say that Segolene Royal is already the candidate for the Socialist Party," said Stephane Le Foll, chief of staff to the party's general secretary.

He said he was basing those comments on official results from 64 regions, representing more than a third of the 219,000 Socialist party members who were eligible to cast ballots in the so-called "primary."

Royal, speaking confidently shortly before her victory was announced, said she "recognized the honor I have been given," and "the momentum I've received to be chosen this way."

She may have done well in the primary based on her performance in the six debates. Or the win may have had more than a bit to do with a bikini raising her name recognition. But whatever. At least she's easier on the eyes than Jacques Chirac who, on a good day, looks rather a lot like our founder. (On a bad day, he also looks like our founder, only from the reverse angle.)

Ransom Note

Send us large sums of money or you'll never see your unity again. The French have their collective shorts in le knot over a unity logo adopted by the European Union to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the formation of the union. Some critics have said the logo, a colorful jumble of letters that spell 'together', evokes a ransom note rather than a logo. The French, being the French, object to the use of English.

France has sent a stiff complaint to Brussels about the European Union’s choice of logo to commemorate its 50th birthday next year.

The offending image, a child-like rendition of the English word together, does nothing to serve the cause of European unity, the French Government claims.

Their objections come after a shower of rude comment throughout Europe about the logo, which was chosen at a cost of €200,000 (£134,000) last month by a jury of experts from EU institutions and member states. The winning entry from among 1,700 submissions was the work of a Polish art student. A common gibe on the internet is that the jumbled letters evoke a ransom note more than festive celebration of the 1957 Treaty of Rome. The full slogan says: “Together since 1957”.

In a letter to José Manuel Barroso, President of the EU Commission, Catherine Colonna, the French Minister for Europe, said: “The logo creates a problem. The message of European unity is not there because each logo is different.” She was referring to plans for each country to produce a version in its own language.

So to overcome French objections the logo will now have a version for every single member state. Celebrate unity the French way! Spit on your neighbors!

Happy Halloween

A small roundup of things Halloweenish. Item: We all know that Halloween is supposed to be a night for the dead, but the French press has declared Halloween itself dead.

"Halloween pretty much buried," the daily le Monde reported, quoting Benoit Pousset, head of costume company Cesar, who attributed the festival's demise in France to "a cultural reaction linked to the rise of anti-Americanism".

"Our Halloween sales have been falling by half every year since 2002," Franck Mathais of toys retailer La Grande Recre told the newspaper.

A group called "Non a Halloween" set up to fight the trend, which it saw as an unwelcome intrusion fostered by purely commercial interests, even wound itself up last year.

"There was no need for the group to exist any more," former president Arnaud Guyot-Jeannin told Reuters.

….

Introduced in France during the 1990s, it aroused strong opposition from many who found it artificial and over commercial and the festival never caught on properly. The Catholic church was particularly sceptical.

The daily Le Parisien painted a desolate picture of abandoned pumpkins and sorry displays in isolated restaurant doorways and declared "Halloween is dead".

Ah, the French. So tolerant. But not to fear, all is not lost in Europe! Item: The Germans have introduced their newest Halloween tradition. Dumping pig heads all over the highways!

BERLIN - A truck spilled two tons of pigs' heads on a road in western Germany, giving passing drivers a shock on the night before Halloween, police said Tuesday.

The accident happened Monday night after the truck turned off a highway in Herne, in the Ruhr region, police in Bochum said.

As the driver accelerated away from a traffic light, the door of his trailer opened, spilling the severed heads onto the road.

"Hans! That speed bump is STARING at us!"

You’ve Heard Of “Stockholm Syndrome”

That's the psychological defense mechanism where a hostage begins to sympathize with the hostage-taker after a bit of time. It seems there is an almost diametrically opposed syndrome just being identified. It is one where people recoil with revulsion when they find out that the reality of a famous tourist destination is nothing like the mental image they had. Instead of a beautiful, elegant city of dreams, they find a scruffy place filled with surly people.

Meet "Paris Syndrome".

PARIS (Reuters) - Around a dozen Japanese tourists a year need psychological treatment after visiting Paris as the reality of unfriendly locals and scruffy streets clashes with their expectations, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

"A third of patients get better immediately, a third suffer relapses and the rest have psychoses," Yousef Mahmoudia, a psychologist at the Hotel-Dieu hospital, next to Notre Dame cathedral, told the newspaper Journal du Dimanche.

Already this year, Japan's embassy in Paris has had to repatriate at least four visitors — including two women who believed their hotel room was being bugged and there was a plot against them.

Previous cases include a man convinced he was the French "Sun King", Louis XIV, and a woman who believed she was being attacked with microwaves, the paper cited Japanese embassy official Yoshikatsu Aoyagi as saying.

"Fragile travellers can lose their bearings. When the idea they have of the country meets the reality of what they discover it can provoke a crisis," psychologist Herve Benhamou told the paper.

The phenomenon, which the newspaper dubbed "Paris Syndrome", was first detailed in the psychiatric journal Nervure in 2004.

Those wacky French. Now we know that exposure to French reality can cause mental problems. Which explains Jacques Chirac at last.

Laugh Of The Day

Courtesy of The New Republic and Marty Peretz: A collection of quotes about the French!

"France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country. France has usually been governed by prostitutes." –Mark Twain

"I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me." –General George S. Patton

"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion." –Norman Schwartzkopf

"We can stand here like the French, or we can do something about it." –Marge Simpson

"As far as I'm concerned, war always means failure." –Jacques Chirac, President of France

"As far as France is concerned, you're right." –Rush Limbaugh

"The only time France wants us to go to war is when the German Army is sitting in Paris sipping coffee." –Regis Philbin

"You know, the French remind me a little bit of an aging actress of the 1940s who was still trying to dine out on her looks but doesn't have the face for it." –John McCain, U.S. Senator (AZ)

"I don't know why people are surprised that France won't help us get Saddam out of Iraq. After all, France wouldn't help us get Hitler out of France either." –Jay Leno

"The last time the French asked for "more proof'' it came marching into Paris under a German flag." –David Letterman

"War without France would be like … uh … World War II."

"What do you expect from a culture and a nation that exerted more of its national will fighting against Disney World and Big Macs than the Nazis?" –Dennis Miller

"It is important to remember that the French have always been there when they needed us." –Alan Kent

"They've taken their own precautions against al-Quaida. To prepare for an attack, each Frenchman is urged to keep duct tape, a white flag, and a three-day supply of mistresses in the house." –Argus Hamilton

"Somebody was telling me about the French Army rifle that was being advertised on eBay the other day–the description 'Never shot. Dropped once.'" –Rep. Roy Blunt (MO)

"The French will only agree to go to war when we've proven we've found truffles in Iraq." –Dennis Miller

"Raise your right hand if you like the French. Raise both hands if you are French."

"Question: Do you know how many Frenchmen it takes to defend Paris?
Answer: It's not known, it's never been tried." –Rep. Roy Blunt (MO)

"Do you know it only took Germany three days to conquer France in WWII? And that's because it was raining." –John Xereas, Manager, DC Improv.

"The AP and UPI reported that the French Government announced after the London bombings that it has raised its terror alert from 'Run' to 'Hide.' The only two higher levels in France are 'Surrender' and 'Collaborate.' The rise in the alert level was precipitated by a recent fire which destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively disabling their military."

"French Ban Fireworks at Euro Disney. … The French government announced today that it is imposing a ban on the use of fireworks at EuroDisney. The decision comes that day after a nightly fireworks display at the park, located just 30 miles outside of Paris, caused the soldiers at a nearby French Army garrison to surrender to a group of Czech tourists." –AP Paris

My favorite is the one from Schwartzkopf.

Still More French Perfidy

Who in their right mind actually considers France an ally? French president Jacques Chirac gave an interview to the media yesterday that indicates he is opposed to sanctions against Iran, repudiating the earlier French backing of a tough stance.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 18 — In a potential break with the Bush administration, French President Jacques Chirac said Monday that he is "never in favor of sanctions" and suggested that the United States and other nations could begin talks with Iran on its nuclear program before Iran formally suspends its nuclear activities.

Chirac's remarks came as President Bush prepared to address the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, part of an intensifying U.S. drive to secure international sanctions against Iran. The French president, in a 45-minute interview on European radio, appeared to upend that diplomatic drive and signaled a widening breach on Iran between the United States and European partners, reminiscent of the debate over the Iraq invasion four years ago

Perhaps mindful of those tensions, some U.S. officials both publicly and privately played down Chirac's comments, insisting there was little daylight between the U.S. and French positions. But others said that the remarks took them by surprise and that they would seek an explanation from the French at meetings on Tuesday.

In his speech, Bush plans to take a far less aggressive approach to Iran than he did four years ago in arguing for action against Iraq, U.S. officials said, casting the debate over Iran as part of a noble effort to bring democracy to the Middle East. The officials said that Iran will not be the major focus of the speech and that Bush also plans to announce he will name a special envoy to spearhead efforts to end the violence in Sudan's Darfur region.

Chirac's comments represented another potential hurdle for Bush, who is coming to the United Nations this week seeking considerable assistance from the world community, including peacekeeping troops for Lebanon, financial aid for the reconstruction of Iraq and political support for his efforts to shut down Iran's nuclear program. At the same time, however, U.S. leverage has been weakened by the ongoing war in Iraq, and diplomats are skeptical that the lofty theme of Bush's speech Tuesday — bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East — will be of much practical significance in swaying countries to Bush's side.

Absolutely the only thing the French can be relied upon for is their ability to perform a volte face on every single issue. Oh, and to backstab. They do that really well, too.

UPDATE: Le Worm. I believe that should be le Ver. Although le Poulet is also fitting.

UPDATE: Bob at Confederate Yankee has cheese eating French troops! Babelfish says "fromage mangeant des singes de reddition". Dunno how correct that is.

Flipper Flogging French Fishermen

My blogger friend from Thailand, Agam, tipped me to this post over at Tim Blair's place. It seems the French are also experiencing the animal uprising. Only this time its Flipper that's freaking out and flailing away at fishermen!

A vicious dolphin* torments French fishermen:

For several weeks, an enraged dolphin has been terrorising the French Atlantic coast, attacking boats and knocking fishermen into the sea, French media reported on Wednesday.

"He’s like a mad dog,” complained Henri Le Lay, president of the association of fishermen and yachtsmen of the port of Brezellec, in Brittany.

The dolphin, who has been named Jean Floch, has destroyed rowboats, overturned open boats, flooded engines and twisted mooring lines.

Worse, two fishermen were knocked into the sea after the dolphin overturned their boat.

"I don’t want to see any widows or orphans,” Le Lay warned. “This could end badly."

Le Lay’s solution:

"We put mad animals to sleep”, he was reported as saying. “I like dolphins, but this one should be removed or locked up very quickly”.

(*Note: Do NOT miss the Reuters of Beirut™ photo in the first link in Tim's post!)

Now, while I'm all in favor of flogging the French verbally, when it comes to attack dolphins, I have to draw the line. If it was a deranged penguin, that would be alright, though.

Smacking the French Around

Michael Portillo, writing in the Times of London does just that. To the French, grandstanding is their preferred method of diplomacy. Grand words and gestures and little or nothing of practical value. Yet the world, for some reason, still acts as if they actually are meaningful. Portillo takes them apart.

It had been a French general, Philippe Morillon, who as head of the UN forces in the former Yugoslavia had first pledged to protect Srebrenica. He did not have the resources to keep that promise and Dutch UN forces in the city did nothing to prevent the massacre. We (the other Nato defence ministers) found a word to describe the French habit of making impressive statements with no means to put them into effect. We called it “grandstanding”.

That gallic custom has been on display again over Lebanon. After the French had taken a vociferous lead in drafting the UN security council resolution that brought about the ceasefire, it was shocking to discover that France was offering just 200 soldiers towards a UN force of 15,000. Late last week, after wasting valuable time since hostilities ended nearly two weeks ago, President Chirac gave way. Having attracted the world’s scorn he raised his country’s offer to 2,000.

There is a cultural difference between the French and the British obvious in their diplomatic styles. The French believe that what they say is at least as important as what they do. They spin grandiloquent phrases and strike postures. Rhetoric is away of life and if you point out it is divorced from all strategic reality that is thought to be nitpicking.

The British, on the other hand, get engrossed in tedious detail like: “Is this practical? Who is going to supply the troops? What will be their rules of engagement?” With Lebanon the French have discovered phrase-making is not enough. In recent days they have become very practical, bleating that there are no established rules of engagement (governing what the soldiers can do and when they can fire) almost as though they were British.

If any country could have settled such important details in advance it is France. It took the kudos for working up the UN resolution. It acted as spokesman for the Arab world within the permanent five members of the council. It insisted that the resolution should not be made under chapter 7 of the UN charter, which would have given the troops the right to impose their will by force.

The unclear rules of engagement derive directly from the ambiguity of the French-inspired resolution. But France has nonetheless used the uncertainty as an excuse for delay. At any time France could have eased the problem by offering to lead the UN forces and proposing rules for all participants. Then every nation would insist on its own variations. They always do. French forces are now arriving in Lebanon with the mission and the rules still unspecified. Chirac claimed he had received assurances from the UN that enabled him to increase French numbers.

This is a world class smackdown of a country that deserves the world's scorn, not it's reverence. Double dealing and selling out allies is a way of life for French diplomacy. Saying grand things and doing nothing is a repeated pattern. The French people deserve better leadership than what they get routinely.

Then again, it has been a pattern for a very long time.