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| Europe |
| By His Own Reckoning, One Man Made Libya a French Cause |
| 2011-04-02 |
| BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY, 62, is such an inescapable figure in France — of mockery, admiration, amusement, envy — that he is by now unembarrassable. Making his mark young as a philosopher, he was satirized neatly by a critic with the words: “God is dead, but my hair is perfect.” But in the space of roughly two weeks, Mr. Lévy managed to get a fledgling Libyan opposition group a hearing from the president of France and the American secretary of state, a process that has led both countries and NATO into waging war against the forces of the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #5 Yokay, I'll bite, doth not "North Africa" include the former "FRENCH NORTH AFRICA" - it sems to me that France + UK + Italia should be interested in Regional andor Country-specific thingys as a matter of course??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-04-02 23:49 |
| #4 Fairly typical of the preferred writing style of Atlantic writers -- please to not call them journalists. While reading it seems as if one, too, is thinking deep thoughts, but afterward it's a bit hard to remember all the details, lacking in true perspective. Agreed, Sgt. Mom, he seems very much the cleverly facile, widely read anthropologist. But then, that was the point of the exercise, which would have provided material for his audience on both sides of the Atlantic. Still, one has to respect Mr Levy's work on the Pearl story, which needed to be told. I much prefer the dear departed Jean-Francois Revel, also known as a journalist-philosopher, who had a true affection and respect for America as well as a serious approach to his subject matter. Not to mention a brisk writing style much more to my taste. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2011-04-02 21:42 |
| #3 I remember the multi-part article in Atlantic - I was still a subscriber, then. He came over as a sanctimonious A-hole, tripping lightly from power/intellectual centers, on the east and west coast, with a short stopover in Las Vegas (IIRC) and generally looking at the inhabitants of these United States as if he were examining freaks in a very upscale carnival. I hated his guts after reading the article series, and would have gladly contributed to fund to keep him on the far side of the Atlantic forever. |
| Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2011-04-02 20:01 |
| #2 Levy looking at the US in an election: The Atlantic: In the footsteps of Tocqueville |
| Posted by: Water Modem 2011-04-02 09:48 |
| #1 Wikipedia on Levy |
| Posted by: Water Modem 2011-04-02 09:44 |