Our Enemy

Kenneth Timmerman, a writer who spent 18 years in France, recounts what France has become - an enemy of the US.

Two nights later, my wife and I were having a splendid dinner in a 15th-century castle on the outskirts of Avallon, a small but beautifully preserved city at the northern gates of the Burgundy wine country.

Among our table-mates in the giant stone kitchen was a sophisticated and agreeable French couple. The man had traveled the world on business, and had set up companies in the United States and in the Arab world. His views — all so reasonable, all so normal and matter of fact — give a better idea of why I believe France is becoming the enemy of freedom.

Saddam was a secular leader, he argued. If the United States had wanted to attack Islamic fundamentalism after 9/11, it should have hit Saudi Arabia.

The United States didn't go to Iraq to find WMD, but to gain control of Iraq's oil and win contracts for Halliburton.

France will never be a target of terrorists, because France is not their enemy.

And anyway, the core of the Middle East problem not radical Islam, but Israel. If there were no Israel, everything would return to normal.

It is astounding that the Left still considers France an ally and wants to work with them. At this point, they have become no different from our enemies in the Middle East.