The French Connection and Iran's Nukes

Underscoring the danger of nukes in the hands of Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the United Nations on Tuesday that nuclear power in the hands of Iran would bring the world to the brink of war.

Sarkozy wasted no time in heading for the jugular in his assessment of the threat posed by nukes in the hands of a state sponsor of terror that has expressed the desire for Israel's demise.

In stark contrast to the policies and rhetoric employed by the French under the leadership of Jacques Chirac, the Sarkozy government appears to take much more of a realistic approach to the Middle East powder-keg.

Ahmadinejad's saber-rattling has become a staple of his Presidency, and Sarkozy takes it seriously. Nukes in the hands of the Iranians not only would be a threat to Israel but to much of Europe as well.

Apparently the U.S. is in full agreement with Sarkozy's assessment. Sources close to the Pentagon state that the U.S. has been secretly drawing up plans for targeted air strikes against Iranian facilities suspected of building the bombs.

These strikes would not be an all-out invasion, nor would any ground troops be necessary to accomplish the mission of destroying Iran's ability to develop nuclear power. In addition, such strikes would send Iran a signal that the U.S. intends to address Iran's threat to the surge in Iraq.

By destroying Iran's nuclear power-plants and key military-industrial facilities, along with cutting off the supply lines of insurgents flowing from Iran to Iraq, the U.S. would make it clear that it intends to cripple and dismantle one of its key roadblocks to success in the Iraqi campaign.

The present climate in French politics provides a golden opportunity for the Bush Administration to repair the strained relations between the two countries as a result of decades of an adversarial Jacques Chirac.

Not only can the U.S. repair its relations with the French and reclaim France as a key ally, but the two nations can conduct a joint operation to address the Iranian threat. A successful venture in this regard could bring a return to the U.S.-French connection on the world stage.

Surprise! France to Elect U.S.-Friendly President

Washington, DC (TLS). Last-minute polling in France's important Presidential elections show that the country is set to elect its first admittedly pro-American President in many years. French voters will go to the polls today to elect a successor to Jacques Chirac, who is retiring.

French-American relations have been strained, particularly as a result of the Iraq War. Chirac certainly made no friends in the U.S. by condemning Americans for the war, charging that we were invading Iraq 'only for the oil,' when it was Jacques Chirac himself who had been making under-the-table deals with Saddam Hussein for his oil.

Even more damaging was the revelation that Chirac secured Saddam's oil by giving him the capability of developing nuclear power. France provided Iraq with its very first nuclear reactor under the leadership of Chirac.

All polls indicate that conservative Nicolas Sarkozy will beat Socialist Segolene Royal in a landslide.

This political campaign bears at least some significance for the upcoming U.S. election cycle. Hillary Clinton is a Royal-styled European Socialist who even uses some of the same rhetoric Royal has unleashed on the campaign trail, referring to windfall profits of private enterprise as opportunity for government to pad its coffers.

Royal has, in fact, demonized private enterprise in France. While Hillary Clinton has not used quite the same acerbic terminology of Royal, she has yet repeatedly pointed to the profits of the oil companies, claiming that 'we will take that money and put it into a national resource for funding alternative sources of energy.'

The French, however, have obviously grown weary of Socialism and will for the first time in several generations elect a solid conservative who views close ties to the U.S. as a virtue and not a vice.

In spite of the fact that Socialist candidates in France get the backing of the less popular Communist Party, this will still not be enough to stem the tide that is breaking in Sarkozy's favor.

Perhaps with this encouraging change in Europe, there will finally be some realistic, hard-hitting proposals for dealing with the near-civil-war-like conditions that exist in France at the hands of Muslim extremists.

We can only hope that Mr. Sarkozy will join the U.S., Great Britain, Australia, and the Eastern European block in the fight against global terrorism. This would be the best news to come out of Europe in many a day.

Hillary Clinton Blasts the Profit Motive

Washington, DC (TLS). A major candidate for public office recently stated the following:

"The unfettered rein of financial profit is intolerable for the general interest," she said. "You told me simple truths. You told me you wanted fewer income inequalities. You told me you wanted to tax capital more than labor. We will do that reform."

Further, the candidate proposed to tax companies in relation to what share of their profits is reinvested in equipment and jobs, and what portion is paid to shareholders.

Sound familiar? It should. Last week Senator Hilliary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, and Democrat Presidential candidate decried the profits made by the oil companies, stating that she would 'take that money and put it in a federal pool to be invested in new energy technologies,' in an obvious endorsement of government-run energy monopolies and a slap at free enterprise, the basis of which is to make a profit for shareholders.

The problem is that Senator Clinton did not say the first set of quotations beginning with, 'The unfettered reign of financial profits is intolerable for the general interest.' She certainly could have said it, for it is entirely consistent with her remarks about the oil companies.

The person who uttered those words that began this article is a French Socialist--Ségolène Royal--who is the presidential candidate of the Socialist Party of France.

As the nightmarish term of Jacques Chirac draws to a close, the French seem to be willing to at least consider an unabashed Socialist for President, although recent polls show Ms. Royal trailing her closest opponent in the race. The thing that is even more nightmarish is how closely Hillary Rodham Clinton's views mirror that of the far-Left Socialist candidate for the French Presidency.

Political pundit and campaign consultant Dick Morris, who once worked closely with Hillary Clinton and refers to her as 'the most dangerous woman in America,' has stated that Hillary is a European-styled Socialist from the get-go. Despite her attempts to appear 'moderate' or to appeal to more conservative voters, Morris claims it is a fatal mistake to assume Hillary's views are anything but ultra-Leftwing. Her core values are that American free enterprise is not a good thing. The profit motive is evil (despite the fact that she herself personally benefited from good old capitalistic profit--more evidence of the elitist hypocrisy of the far-Left that maintains the ruling class doesn't have to live by the same rules they dump on everyone else).

Therefore, in Hillary's playbook, capitalism must be dismantled and replaced by a massive nanny state that gives away the freebies like Santa Claus from the cradle to the grave. The problem being, of course, that there is no such thing as a 'freebie.' What is free for one person has been paid for by someone else. And in this case, the freebies come at the expense of the American taxpayer.

Thus, if you want to see where a Hillary Clinton Presidency would take us, study France. If that's not enough to sober you up, nothing will.

To see just how closely Hillary's candidacy mirrors the French Socialist candidate, click here:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/11/news/france.php