So, now the white crosses of Normandy! Obviously, there was no doubt you'd bring them out again, to wave them in the nose of these rats, these frogs, these little devils that we seem to be for you, these days. You'll have tried everything. Guilt feelings, after insults and threats. Our magazines have shown us this photo of the white crosses on the front page of one of your newspapers, because your images cross the Atlantic nowadays much faster than the ships of "Overlord." They showed us the headlines of this paper, with the text: "Dead for France, but forgotten by the French."
But we haven't forgotten the white crosses. They haunt us. You know how history haunts us, us of old Europe. That date, 6 June 1944, still makes many of us tremble. So do the names that come with them, Utah, Omaha, Ste-Mere-Eglise. As for all these kindnesses you bring up to our face, the surrender in '40, Vichy, anti-semitism, all these pages of shame that you enjoy waving these days, we've not forgotten them either. Everybody has skeletons in the closet. We have ours, you have yours. So, let's put down our arms, and talk.
The truth, the simple and foolish truth, is that we understand nothing about your war. The French masses understand nothing, which is normal. But, above, government ministers, diplomats, editorial writers, even our wise guys, they're just as astonished - and this is new. No one understands why your government wants to go wage war against the bloody tyrant Saddam. So all types of explanation are given. George W. wants revenge for his father. He wants to get his hand on the oil. Or on the water. It's a crusade by the madmen of God from Washington. Every trend of anti-americanism in France gives its little lecture, keys in hand. I personally prefer to accept the simplest explanation: September 11. How would we react if a plane crashed against the Eiffel Tower, a second on the Arc of Triumph, and a third on the defense ministry? We'd be blinded by panic. So now we have to understand that your power and your fear have made you crazy. It's possible. We respect your pain, as we do all pain. But the tyrant of Baghdad, up to now, has nothing to do with it. You have no proof. You gesture, you wave names and dates. Your services serve, your leaks leak in every way, names of mullahs and imams - offered as the "missing link" - appear and vanish. It's no longer an indictment, it's now accidental fireworks. So what? So we understand your fear. We respect it. But don't ask us to follow you in your folly. Very many old Europeans love you, even today as much as they did once. They love in spite of Bush - let's not say any more so as not to poison things. They love your generosity. Your tenacity. Your enthusiasm. Your love of job well done. Your belief that evil exists. Your simple ideas. Your ET's and your Private Ryans. Nonetheless, we're behind Chirac. Even those who only voted for him, last year, while holding their noses. In cowardice? Be serious! Don't you think it takes more courage, today, to stand up against you rather than come under your wing? We watch him admiringly as he brings together Schröder, Putin, and others, walking above the abyss, while fearing he'll lose his balance at the last moment, knowing as we do how slippery it is. But we admire him, and do you know why? Because he's defending today the same cause for which your forefathers came to sleep under our white crosses: the refusal to accept the law of the powerful. His refusal of "if it's not you, then it's your brother." You who love simple ideas, can't you understand this? So. if he manages to change the inexorable end of the fable, he will have greatly earned our admiration. And also, some day, your gratitude.
The sheer arrogance and condescension of this is beyond belief. For instance, the idea that we want them to follow us. We don't; all we want is for them to shut up and get out of the way. And as I said before, it's one big lie. He knows full well what's really going on and why we are fighting, and why France opposes it, and that French opposition has little to do with principle.
