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Why is it that if a country disagrees with American foreign policy, many a people feel like get a divorce from it? Perhaps that is because we as Americans get divorced more times than not...

Please forgive my grammatical errors...

Hi Fredo,

It is uncanny that you should make an analogy to divorce. Charles Kupchan at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations said, ''The question in my mind is not so much how to repair the Atlantic alliance but whether this will be an amicable separation or a nasty divorce.''

I think many people aren't really against France because it disagrees with American foreign policy. We just feel cheated because our "ally" didn't turn out to be as good a friend as we expected them to be.

Tensions will continue to be strained in post-war Iraq because France, Russia and Germany want to stake their claim in the new Iraq. That infuriates Americans because these countries didn't want to support us, but they are more than happy to profit off our blood, sweat and tears.

If you don't believe me, please read "Anti-War Front Collapses as Iraq Gold Rush Begins" from Arab News, Saudi Arabia - Apr 15, 2003. http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=25269

Here is a short clip from the article: �They couldn�t prevent the war, but that hasn�t stopped the �Non-Nyet-Nein� coalition of France, Russia and Germany from staking their individual claims to a role in shaping, and profiting from, the new Iraq�All three have sounded conciliatory in the past week, while saying they want to see the United Nations play the lead role in postwar reconstruction � tactics widely seen as an effort to avoid being locked out of business deals by the United States�France led the drive to prevent a war and threatened to use its veto at the UN Security Council to block any resolution authorizing military action against Iraq.�

Here is another strike against France: Daniel Howes from the Detriot News wrote, "Washington and its allies in Britain should expose the French, German and Russian companies that did business with Saddam Hussein in defiance of United Nations rules. Those who broke the rules and effectively supported his machine -- particularly if they supplied anything used in weaponry -- should be denied access to any business in a new Iraq."

I am not necessarily saying I agree with what is being printed in the press, but when Americans read stories like this it makes them upset and angry. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

I think that there are several reasons why America bad about France. Among them, there is the WW2 argument: "We saved their butts and that's how they repay us!!!". Also, France has been noticed in being the most desobedient of the European puppets often opposing itself to America's will. So, I guess that France is not a very popular nation among the USA people. That effect is amplified by the "strictly objective" media.

Now, nobody likes it when someone opposes to what he's doing. And it is a natural thing to want punish the bad guy. And yes, USA have never been shy in doing so. In the end, the position of the "stubborn three", will most certainly cost them dearly. On the other hand, America is not the only country in the world that has to eat bread (oil in this case) and it should know (if not care) that there are other "tiny buggs" that need to eat. France's and Russia's interests were touched in that war ... why should they happily support something that directly hurts them? I don't know what Germany is doing in that coalition.

Besides, I thought that the only real Americas allies is the UK. The rest of Europe are just obeying in order to survive and prosper to some degree.

The resume of all this is that France was bad with the big daddy and America is not going to forgive that. There will be no war between the two, but France will definitely suffer some consequences. That is as natural as wet water.