François Nonnenmacher (EN) | FR

Mr Rumsfeld last ranting about old Europe has generated unanimous protestations across french media which flagged his speech (and the guy for some) as ignorant, arrogant, aggressive, plain stupid -- and I shall stop here before this blog gets PG rated. A significant number of analysts came to the same conclusion: Rumsfeld did a very good job in fueling an anti-American feeling in France (and probably in Germany too). One excerpt from Pierre-Luc Séguillon (LCI):

And for the first time, a US government exec clearly displays a vision where Europe is assimilated to the NATO, seen as a federation of vassals of the American suzerain.

It did not take long for the US government porte-parole to calm things down, and remind world plus dog that France is -- and has always been -- a US ally. And to unveil yet another change in discourse, since now Bush and beloved Blair are willing to give more time to the UN inspectors in Iraq. Last week Bush congratulated himself to lead a democracy where people can freely protest, but did not say that he had to listen anyway. He finally might be. I used to think the French anti-Americanism was a cliché. Now you can pretty much feel it. Hopefully, the vast majority of those who express concerns about the US are able to distinguish the people from its current government. By the way, what's up with North Korea, Enron, petrol, the death penalty and the vice-president?