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| Europe |
| US destroying secular Middle East: Le Pen |
| 2005-11-03 |
| France's extreme right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen on Tuesday accused the United States of working to destroy secular regimes in the Middle East, including those of Iraq and Syria. At a news conference in the Greek Cypriot port city of Limassol on the divided island of Cyprus, the leader of the National Front party reiterated his opposition to Turkey's entry into the European Union. Le Pen rejected the argument that Turkey was heading for a more secular stance, saying: "I say this is false. Turkey is on the path of re-Islamisation". He added: "In reality it is the Americans who want Turkey to enter the European Union, yet it is they (the US) who have destroyed all the secular regimes in the Middle East." He cited as examples the secular regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and said Washington now wanted to do the same with Syria. American policy was aimed at getting the Muslim world to excuse its unconditional support for Israel, he said. Deploring that Europe today had become a clone of the Americans, Le Pen said: "It is evident ... that the Turkish people are not a European people, neither through geography, history or culture. Europe can only be made up of European countries." Outside the hotel where Le Pen was speaking, a few dozen Cypriot protestors chanted: "Hitler, Le Pen, Never Again". Visibly stung by the chants which penetrated the conference, the National Front leader riposted: "These young people should be told to go and demonstrate in Ankara. "I was one of the youngest members of the French resistance ... I do not take lessons about anything over the struggle against the Germans," said Le Pen, who on Sunday visited the Turkish-Cypriot held north of Cyprus. |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #11 Phil-B, I've been searching for a way to describe my political outlook and you just gave it to me. Thanks. Guess that's why I liked this place from the start. :) |
| Posted by: eltoroverde 2005-11-03 23:59 |
| #10 Phil_b, your assessment describes my political outlook perfectly. Guess that's why I like to hang out here. :) |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-11-03 09:50 |
| #9 Nazi Germany was secular, the Papal States a theocracy (I think). The terms mean nothing without more context. I prefer a distinction between dictatorship and democracy. All dictatorships suck, and those that love and coddle dictators are slime. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz (no T!) 2005-11-03 09:25 |
| #8 Le Pen pretends to have been one of the youngest resistents in France but AFAIK his "resistance" consisted in, alongide with his father, hiding the family gun when the Germans started collecting weapons. He did neither put it to good use nor delivered it to the nearest resistance group. |
| Posted by: JFM 2005-11-03 08:08 |
| #7 I'm a centrist liberal-conservative, a republican Quite a few of us would fit into that description. Liberal on personal freedom issues. Right of centre on law and order, national defence and PC idiocy and its attendant social engineering. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-11-03 07:02 |
| #6 Good luck A5089--from what they're saying of France here on the 'burg, you just might get some reinforcements soon. |
| Posted by: mac 2005-11-03 05:38 |
| #5 The Front National is anti-US (it was said that FN supporters drank champagne during 9/11 news coverage), and Le Pen was a stout Saddam supporter (his second wife runs an org supporting iraqi children). There are some ideological convergences between far-right and baathism, too. Note that the FN is an hodge-podge (?) of movements only held by the charisma of JMLP, who's now very aged and runs the party like a private business, mostly for his personal benefit (my take is he's got an unspoken agreement with the establishment, he's their scarecrow and devil, so they can act like the saviors of democracy and get some legitimacy they wouldn't get otherwise, and in return he's got a political niche). They're not nazis nor fascists, they're just traditional right-wing, some conservative catholics, a few "reaganians", a few petainists, some "French Algeria" & pieds-noirs,... Pat Buchanan paleo-cons, actually. Real problem is that almost all the french political scenery is anti-US and anti-zionist, from the far-right (it's a bit more complicated than that, but many there are pro-palestinian and anti-capitalist, for example) to the far-left... and "liberal" (european sense, free-market, small gvt) is a foul word for most of the people. THe MSM and their incestouus complicity with the establishment don't help, of course. Btw, it could be said I'm a right-winger, but in fact it's just that french politics are *so* shifted to the left (Shiraq, the "conservative" president is to the left of Scroder and Blair...), I'm a centrist liberal-conservative, a republican (that's what US pol quizz tell me, anyway). The "right-wing" I belong to is mostly an virtual, "internet" one (IE anti islam websites, a few orgs,...) which is pro-US, pro-Israel, pro-free market, and not obligatory catholic and/or nationalist (though it helps). |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2005-11-03 05:31 |
| #4 So, they're pissed off that we're intruding on their territory, eh? |
| Posted by: gromky 2005-11-03 04:33 |
| #3 I look at it more along the lines of, "We, ze Phrench, like our Meedle East cawntries better weeth deektators in charge." |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-11-03 00:54 |
| #2 Is that the reason for arguing against regime change in Syria and the backhanded sneer at Israel? |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-11-03 00:34 |
| #1 Supporting Hezbollah must be the strange new way of showing you're "secular." |
| Posted by: Phil 2005-11-03 00:17 |