It may be possible to warm up to France's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy. By appointing the extraordinary Bernard Kouchner as his new foreign minister, Sarkozy is most emphatically declaring an end to business-as-usual in the Fifth Republic. Kouchner is a man of the left meaning, of course, that the leftist old guard is bitterly opposing his alignment with the dreaded rightist Sarkozy. When will these political leaders understand that the needs of the nation far outweigh the petty needs of the party, here and in France? Now is the time for France to pull together, not to continue an atomization toward irrelevance.
One hopes that Kouchner will talk sense into Sarkozy around supporting Turkey's EU entry. We are otherwise witnessing the evaporation of a precious moment in time that requires supporting Ankara's secularism and bringing an Islamic nation closer into the European family. Enough with the French role in parlaying fear and hatred into the growing isolation of NATO's most strategically located ally. Turkey's presence astride the European, Mediterranean, Islamic and Arab worlds makes it too important for trifling.
Dr. Kouchner, a founder of the Nobel Prize-winning Doctors Without Borders is a real piece of work. “An unguided missile" was how Boutros Boutros-Ghali once described him. Still, this man cares deeply about human rights and his voice will add considerable stature on the subject to the Sarkozy team. Yes, Kouchner was frightfully wrong in supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq, but his seemed always to be a mistake of naivete coupled with an authentic desire to remove a murderous despot in Saddam Hussein. Rhetoric aside, one never got the impression here that Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfield and their henchmen had any real humanitarian motivations for the Iraq War.
Kouchner has the potential to do great things for France, as does Sarkozy. I'm warming up to the possibilities. Besides, unlike some of the U.S. presidential candidates referenced below, at least the two of them believe in evolution and understand that torture is illegal, unethical and immoral.
One hopes that Kouchner will talk sense into Sarkozy around supporting Turkey's EU entry. We are otherwise witnessing the evaporation of a precious moment in time that requires supporting Ankara's secularism and bringing an Islamic nation closer into the European family. Enough with the French role in parlaying fear and hatred into the growing isolation of NATO's most strategically located ally. Turkey's presence astride the European, Mediterranean, Islamic and Arab worlds makes it too important for trifling.
Dr. Kouchner, a founder of the Nobel Prize-winning Doctors Without Borders is a real piece of work. “An unguided missile" was how Boutros Boutros-Ghali once described him. Still, this man cares deeply about human rights and his voice will add considerable stature on the subject to the Sarkozy team. Yes, Kouchner was frightfully wrong in supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq, but his seemed always to be a mistake of naivete coupled with an authentic desire to remove a murderous despot in Saddam Hussein. Rhetoric aside, one never got the impression here that Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfield and their henchmen had any real humanitarian motivations for the Iraq War.
Kouchner has the potential to do great things for France, as does Sarkozy. I'm warming up to the possibilities. Besides, unlike some of the U.S. presidential candidates referenced below, at least the two of them believe in evolution and understand that torture is illegal, unethical and immoral.