Sarkozy, You So Crazy

So what's the uber-glam prez of La France doing ranting and raving in front of British Parliament, and saying that "We cannot afford to lose Afghanistan. Whatever the cost, whatever the expense, we cannot afford it." What's he doing, channeling JFK? (or Dick Cheney?) Seems to me that we can't afford to _not_ lose Afghanistan. Not that Iraq is not the premier tar baby of our time, but Afghanistan can't be much better. But maybe he deserves some credit. France seems to at least have been capable of making a distinction between a Taliban-infested country and one with no demonstrable connection to the Taliban -- something the Bush administration found to be absolutely impossible. I guess the French, with their considerable historical experience in the Moslem world, haven't yet adopted the American premise that "all rag-heads are the same" (including the Iraqis, who don't even wear burnooses). (Although they have been known to wear nooses.) And yet, I wonder at Sarkozy's missionary zeal. What, precisely, is the imminent threat that the Taliban present to France? Or is he just trying to bolster his credentials as something other than a mush-brained socialist? Or perhaps it's a way of distancing France from the cozy relationship it had with Saddam Hussein for all those years, _including_ the time of the Gulf War and afterwards.

By the way, Queen Elizabeth presented the president with the Order of the Bath. (No one dared tell him that every Frenchman who visits England is given this same order.)