I wanted to remind my Republican friends of something they did 20 years ago. 9/!! had happened two years prior, and the French , British, Danes, Canadians and others had all sent troops to Afghanistan alongside the Americans, to fight al Qaeda.
But then W. Bush decided to invade Iraq, and the French balked at that. They were very skeptical. They said: "Why do this? Iraq is not a terrorist threat to America or the West?" They said "If you invade and topple the government, you will create instability in the whole region." And they asked "What is your end-game? Do you plan to stay forever and govern the country?" Finally they concluded "No, this is madness. We will NOT go into Iraq with you. This is not a natural extension of the War on Terror. It's going to be endlessly expensive, and you're going to be exhausted and not win." So they stayed out. They continued on in Afghanistan until bin Laden was dead, but they never went went Iraq, and were unhelpful.
Americans, led by the Republicans, went ballistic on the French, even renamed French fries "Freedom Fries" in the Congressional Cafeteria.
Now it's 20 years on, and how is Iraq going? It's going exactly as the French said it would. We overthrew Saddam Hussein, who was not attacking us with terrorists, and got ISIS, who do. We took a cold enemy and turned it into a Shi'ite state dominated by Iran. and we're going to be there forever too, because the instant we leave it will be another Afghanistan style collapse.
In other words, the French were completely right, their strategic vision was clear, and they were warning us because they are our ALLY. We treated them like dogshit, accusing them of disloyalty for not following us into a rat trap. They tried to warn us, we didn't listen. They were right. Now the French are all in on stopping the Russians in Ukraine. They see what is at stake, and understand the necessity of it. Maybe you Republicans should listen to them this time, and not be so eager to pull out. (Note, they LEFT Afghanistan after bin Laden was killed: mission accomplished. They never bought into nation building, and did not, therefore, share in our ignominious defeat there.)
