Q & A

Subject: French American relations and Iraq.

Question: As someone who has been interested in France and the French way of life, and relating to what is going on now with the approaching war with Iraq, i was wondering if you could explain or maybe give your opinion on why France has not joined the US? And how has this effected relations with Americans in France?

Answer: My feeling is that France along with most of the world's population believes that Iraq does not pose a real threat to world peace and had nothing to do with 9/11. In fact I would guess that right now the general felling in France and the rest of the world is that the greatest threat to world peace and stability comes from the United States. After all it is the US that has the most weapons of mass destruction and not Iraq and also the US is willing to use them unilaterally with little regard to the opinions of others. For me your question need to be turned around and put this way - Why has the US not jointed the rest of the world on the issue of Iraq?
A good article on this subject can be found here, http://thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030210&s=alterman1.
As for your question on American French relations, I would say it is an understatement to say that American French relations are strained, but there have been problems in the past that have been gotten through, and I suspect the strain will pass. Jeff

Related article: Anti-Americanism