In Berlin today, Barack Obama capped his European tour with an address to an audience whose numbers reached tens of thousands. But while the media will focus on Obama’s call to strengthen America’s trans-Atlantic alliance with France and Germany, no doubt absent from the coverage will be John McCain’s essential role in undermining it. As it turns out, back in 2003 John McCain stood shoulder to shoulder with the Berlin-bashers and Paris-hating purveyors of “freedom fries” and “old Europe.”
As President Bush prepared to pull the trigger on the Iraq war in February 2003, John McCain was at the forefront of those browbeating the Chirac government for France’s refusal to back the U.S. at the United Nations. On February 10, 2003, McCain declared on MSNBC’s Hardball:
“Look, I don’t mean to try to be snide, but the Lord said the poor will always be with us. The French will always be with us, too.”
The next day on February 11, 2003, McCain co-sponsored a Senate resolution praising 18 European nations backing U.S. enforcement of UN demands for Saddam’s disarmament. In his press release, McCain echoed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in thundering at the France and Germany of “old Europe:”
“The majority of Europe’s democracies have spoken, and their message could not be clearer: France and Germany do not speak for Europe…most European governments behave like allies that are willing to meet their responsibilities to uphold international peace and security in defense of our common values. We thank this European majority for standing with us.”
McCain’s venom towards the French and Germans was on full display two days later during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
On February 13, 2003, McCain warned of “new threats to civilization [which] again defy our imagination in scale and potency” portrayed Iraq as “threat of the first order.” He proclaimed that “the United States does not have reliable allies to implement a policy to contain Iraq” and pointed the finger squarely at France:
“Compare our great power allies in the Cold War with those with whom we act today in dealing with Iraq.
France has unashamedly pursued a concerted policy to dismantle the UN sanctions regime, placing its commercial interests above international law, world peace and the political ideals of Western civilization. Remember them? Liberte, egalite, fraternite…
…Gerhard Schroeder’s Germany looks little like the ally that anchored our presence in Europe throughout the Cold War. A German Rip Van Winkle from the 1960s would not understand the lack of political courage and cooperation with its allies on the question of Iraq exhibited in Berlin today.”
Just days later on February 18, 2003, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Lateline program showed a furious McCain foaming at the mouth over France:
Here’s how influential Senator John McCain sees the French.
JOHN MCCAIN, REPUBLICAN SENATOR: They remind me of an aging movie actress in the 1940s who is still trying to dine out on her looks but doesn’t have the face for it.
NORMAN HERMANT: Many in Washington are now saying relations with France have been a problem going all the way back to the end of World War II.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Perhaps Churchill and Roosevelt made a very serious mistake when they decided to give France a veto in the Security Council when the United Nations was organized.
McCain’s feud with the French continued even after the start of hostilities and President Bush’s May 1 declaration of “mission accomplished” in Iraq. But in a cynical July 2003 keynote address to the Atlantic Partnership (which promotes “the benefits of a strong and stable Atlantic community of nations”), Senator McCain acted as if he had never uttered his seething words of condemnation. Even in papering over the schism he helped foster, McCain couldn’t resist taking a potshot at France:
“France and Germany shared the goals of our campaign to disarm Saddam Hussein’s regime. We obviously disagreed over the means. Now that we have achieved our common objective of ending the threat posed by Saddam’s Iraq, it’s time to stop quarreling over the way we did so and move on. European nations that opposed the war must resist the tendency to say “I told you so,” sit on the sidelines as the United States and our partners attempt to transform Iraq, and hope we find ourselves in a sandy quagmire that, in the eyes of some war opponents, would give us our just due… …The United States must resist the tendency to punish our friends who did not support how we went to war, because things could have turned out differently. By the admission of Germany’s leading opposition figures, who lost a close election to the current chancellor’s coalition, a government in Berlin led by them would have stood with the United States in the diplomatic campaign preceding the war. France would have been isolated in its opposition, unable to claim to speak for Europe.”
But that was five years ago. The United States, humbled by its humiliating fiasco in Iraq, is in no position to say “I told you so” to anyone. French President Chirac and German Chancellor Shroeder, persistent thorns in the side of the Bush administration, are gone, replaced by the more complaint conservative cheerleaders in Paris and Berlin, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, respectively. And most importantly, John McCain is now running for the White House and needing to project a presidential image during his European tour. So it’s no surprise why John McCain reversed course and discovered his “friendship” with France during a March visit to Paris.
In the New York Times Monday, Republican water carrier Bill Kristol mocked Barack Obama’s looming address in Berlin and its “anodyne message his campaign advertised Sunday - a discussion of the ‘historic U.S.-German partnership’ and strengthening trans-Atlantic relations.”
Given the frayed state of the U.S. relationship with Europe, that is a vitally important message for the next American president - whoever it may be - to deliver. As Barack Obama clearly understands, it’s not too soon to begin to repairing the Atlantic partnership that was so weakened by George W. Bush and John McCain.
No Trackbacks To “2003 Flashback: McCain Bashed Germany and France“
Watching the crowd waiting for Obama now:
http://c-span.org/
When was he piloting a jet over Germany and France?
ysbaddaden @ 2:
I thought he was piloting a Messerschmidt bi-plane.
So Obama is in Germany…and McCain is in Berlin, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Ohio….Jeebus the Republicans are so transparent. Obama makes a splash in Europe, and McCain tries a new twist on the Greenbriar/Baltimore gimmick of 76 years ago to counter this.
Yet Quinnapiac has McCain up now in Colorado and gaining in Michigan and Wisconsin….I guess folks are gluttons for punishment, especially those “low information voters.”
Bush has killed their children in a stupidly pointless war…and they want to let McCain do the same thing?! Damn.
Ya know, if it was not for France throwing their support behind the colonies, there would probably be no United States.
To all you Bushites, See what a REAL statesman looks like!
While McIdiot rides in Bush’s 41 Golf Cart, (Hands OFF)….
The next President of the United States will be addressing over 100,000 people in another country that are starved for a REAL leader to emerge, one who can formulate a complete sentence, one who can signal to the rest of the world that OUR Warmongering days are over ….
01/20/09 Can not come soon enough …. (179 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes)
Bob in Seattle @ 6:
No shit! Can’t friggin WAIT!
When Obama’s inaugurated…there’s gonna be a HUGE bash at my house!
3 liberalNmoderation Says: ysbaddaden @ 2:
When was he piloting a jet over Germany and France?
I thought he was piloting a Messerschmidt bi-plane.
When did they start allowing bisexuals into the Airforce?
Yet another lovely example of McCain’s misogynist attitude as well, right at the beginning of that transcript. I’m beginning to think that any woman who would vote for this reptile is a total, complete idiot.
Thanks for posting this- very helpful to REALLY know McGramps REAL Foreign Skills for what they are….
Yet Quinnapiac has McCain up now in Colorado and gaining in Michigan and Wisconsin….I guess folks are gluttons for punishment, especially those “low information voters.”
Never underestimate the stupidity of the American electorate.
MountainMan23 @ 1:
Thanks for the link. It is difficult to refrain from feeling optimistic when watching Obama speak. Imagine - a US presidential hopeful who not only speaks in complete sentences, but knows how to use his own language in a persuasive, eloquent manner.
Shared goals is what brings us and europe together, but to the repubs, if you aren’t a lap dog then you are just as bad as the terrorists.
What McCain said in 2003
From the February 16, 2003, edition of CBS’ Face the Nation
McCAIN: I’m sure they will because it’s in their interests to do so. The French have a long commercial connection with the Iraqis, and let — let me just say a word about the French. They remind me of an aging movie actress in the 1940s who’s still trying to dine out on her looks, but doesn’t have the face for it. The cynical role — the cynical role that France is playing proves that if — if you are not — you cannot be a great nation unless you have great purpose. And they’ve lost their purpose. And it’s very unfortunate, and perhaps Churchill and Roosevelt made a very serious mistake when they decided to give France a veto in the Security Council, following — when the United Nations was organized.
I repeat
let me just say a word about the French. They remind me of an aging movie actress in the 1940s who’s still trying to dine out on her looks, but doesn’t have the face for it.
Who the hell is the US to look down on any other nation??? Oh that’s right, I forgot, America is perfect is every way.
That would be laughable if it’s wasn’t so pathetic.
Ah yes, back to the so called “Axis of Weasels” nations that people like McCain kept calling them in the lead up to Bush’s war. Funny how ever since, the Bush Administration has had to go to those same nations time and time again with hat in hand asking for assistance in either Iraq or Afghanistan. People like McCain seem to forget that the nations making up that “Axis of Weasels” have all been empires at some point during their history and all have fought against insurgencies. France in Algeria and the Ivory Coast, Germany in France, Soviet Union in Afghanistan, etc. Those nations knew what the U.S. was getting into because they have done it themselves and paid a heavy price for it. What a pity for us all, but most especially our military, that the inexperienced and arrogant Bush Administration has had to learn those same painful lessons again.
Ever blurring the lines between news and opinion, CNN.com lists things like “Beck: Obama coverage almost embarrassing” under it’s Latest News Banner.
Liberal Bias huh?
From CNN.com
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Mick the Terrible @ 12:
I know…it’s sad that after 7 plus years of Bushies slaughtering of the English language ( and innocent civilians)…someone who speaks effectively and persuasively…it’s gonna be nice. Real damn nice.
I work with many Europeans, as does Buffy, and most Europeans think of the US as the big, half drunk 19 year old village idiot that no one can whoop.
Buffy found this telling how foreign service staff weren’t allowed to attend Obama speech.
Buffy smells a massive McCain defeat in November.
the post obama speech may be interesting and likely predictable….watch for the “rock star” label this is to belittle obama……also with all the problems we have at home and he is in europe..most of us understand the
world is flat. we are dependent on each other…if you watch the financial market and/or read the major papers the news/financial information is international in content.
our relationship(s) with other countries do matter…this is obama not jfk…..and he is not a “rock star” and/or celebrity…….we must not let the right minimize our movement…….obama is revealing a sharp contrast to mcBush who could never get crowds like this Why…..
he isn’t for the people he is for corporations that want special privileges and the elite…the middle class must
rise in order for the u.s. to survive
Leadership @ 18:
That’s just his Depends.
john j @ 14:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF-Fv_1uq-w
German officials estimate over a hundred thousand people turned out to hear Sen. Obama’s speech. The German people appear to be as excited about him as many of us are. He went down and started shaking hands with the people and they were clamoring to touch him, photograph him or shake his hand, just as they do here.
I don’t know what anyone else is going to say about his speech but I thought it was just damned excellent!
I think it was chuck todd who said McCain could have given the same speech. Yeah right, but he couldn’t have given it the way Sen. Obama just did.
ysbaddaden @ 22:
Then he called France a C**t.
So glad Obama was well received in Berlin….
& in Europe…
& it looks like the entire world….
That was just beautiful….
liberalNmoderation @ 18:
Rousing speech.
“Citizens of the World”
MountainMan23 @ 26:
Damn! Wish I coulda seen it!
pinkobait @ 24:
HA! that’s friggin hilarious!
I thought the speech was pretty good for a novice. But where was the rousing close?
Something like “Goodbye from the biggest polluter in the world.”
Mclame says it is inappropriate for Obama to go to Germany while he is just a candidate and not the POTUS. Mclame would like to go to Germany after he is elected. Guess he won’t make it. And am sure Germany will be oh soooo sorry Mclame couldn’t make it, he is such a favorite of Germany. What a putz!!! Obama is very presidential. Works for me.
Unbelievable…..MSNBC couldnt wait to jump right back in the story about the missing 2 year old. That will be the diversion for weeks now. I feel for the family but when there is no new news, there is no new news. Surprised they didn’t cut in on Obama’s speech with ‘no news.’
In response, McCain it set to give a speech about the European-Iraq border.
I was going to go right to bed after the Obama Speech from Berlin, it’s almost 2 AM here.
But I have to say this about his appearance in Berlin. There were times when I and my neighbors (we watched together) had tears come to our eyes. Obama brings to mind so much Hope. He represents what the world CAN be. He held that crowd (estimated at almost 100,000) spellbound. He was Loved.
I’m sure he will get the same receptions in the next two venues.
Barack is what being a real statesman is all about. Someone who can capture the minds of people around the Globe. The entire global community.
People out here can’t believe that there could be ANY people left in America who do not support Obama’s kind of Global thought, but they do. We need to all do our part to make sure that we have enough will to overpower the Moron Factor in America, the 28 percenters and the warmongers.
Today, I saw that hope shoot through the minds of people all over the Earth.
It is our duty to put this man in office.
Spero che Obama sia scelto presidente degli S.U.A.
pinkobait @ 24:
Obama has a five fold popularity rating over McCain across most of Europe.
Saw one of McStains Ads on the tv last night, in it he claims that Iran threatened to “Wipe Israel off the map”. How can he get away with this blatant disinfo? The regressives just eat this shit up.
liberAL @ 30:
I don’t think CNN or Faux broadcast it at all or am I wrong?
McCain’s speech in the oilfields of Sunnislovakia was rained out.
pissed off patricia @ 23:
The world loves Obama…but gee,what about all those knuckle-dragging, NASCAR-loving, mullet-wearing, ugly-wife-marrying, redneck wrestlemaniacs in the South and Midwest??? They clearly don’t like all that high-falutin’, show-offin’, elitist stuff.
After all, we can’t have someone who’s actually liked and respected by the rest of the globe. That would be awful.
♫..Bangkok Bob..♫ @ 32:
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to get teary eyed while watching the speech. I had this flood of emotional hope that I haven’t felt in a long time.
This just in.
McCain is to meet with Dalai Lama tommorrow. Talk about incongruous image. Reminds me of when Castro met the Pope. Weird…..
http://blog.washingtonpost.com....._lama.html
Ron @ 35: