A Toast to Sarkozy

Fred Thompson has written a short but insightful piece at Townhall.com on the question, "Why has "anti-American" France elected a "pro-American" president in Nicolas Sarkozy?"

It could be that France is not really anti-US. The French media, like American media, seem to be in opposition to democratic ideals and not the French people. Thompson writes:

I think that's part of it, but it also has a lot to do with Iran's race to get nuclear weapons and missiles capable of striking the heart of Europe. President Ahmadinejad has been regularly threatening European nations that won’t go along with his master plan.

Ahmadinejad’s threats are taken particularly seriously by the French, because there are a lot of people inside France who seem to share his goals. For years, the French have endured terrible intimidation, violence and riots at the hands of people who openly hate their democratic institutions. In the run-up to the presidential election, French voters were plainly threatened with even more bloodshed and destruction if they dared to elect Nicolas Sarkozy. As promised, that violence is now taking place nightly on streets across France.

The refusal by the French people to bow to this political extortion should be recognized and cheered. They have not only sent a message to anti-democratic forces inside and outside their borders, I believe they are telling us something even more important. We are beginning, I think, to see our old friends and allies put aside disagreements and rivalries to do what has to be done. It has been a long road, but the forces of civilization and order are beginning to understand that we are in a global struggle against the forces of death and destruction.

Please read that last line again. The forces of civilization "are in a global struggle against the forces of death and destruction." Thompson is right on. The only question is, will Europe wake up in time? All the more important an issue now that England's Tony Blair has resigned.

But for now, let us re-think our "boycott France" mentality and raise a toast to Sarkozy with - as Fred Thompson suggests - a bottle of French wine.

Oh, and btw, if you're interested in the Fred Thompson for President blogroll, check out Texas Fred's Blog Roll America site.