Nicolas Sarkozy is the new George W Bush

By Alex Spillius World News
Last updated: April 12th, 2011
41 Comments

France’s intervention in the Ivory Coast is further proof of Nicolas Sarkozy’s growing appetite for muscular intervention.

French and UN troops have helped arrest Laurent Gbagbo, whose refusal to let president-elect Alassane Ouattara was plunging the country into civil war.

It was Sarkozy who first recognised the Libyan rebels and France who fired first on Muammar Gaddafi’s forces. He took a tougher line on Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak than Britain or the United States. He has been aggressive against Iran’s nuclear weapons plans and personally intervened in the crisis in Georgia in 2008 as president of the European Union, helping ensure that Russia did not invade.

What is he up to? There are plenty of domestic critics who think he is trying to boost flagging poll numbers ahead of what promises to be a difficult re-election. Supporting the youth of the Arab spring will be useful with France’s North African minorities given Marine Le Pen’s challenge from the Right.

Sounding a great deal like George W Bush, the French president has spoken of asserting France’s role as a shaper of history and a protector of liberty and democracy. Who is running the freedom agenda now? Although as Arthur Goldhammer says here, Charles de Gaulle he is not.

But his search for grandeur has been conducted with an impatience, reactiveness and love of risk which has marked his career. In Tunisia, he had to make amends for his then foreign minister suggesting that France could send over riot troops to train the police, while in Libya he has wanted to erase the embarrassment of courting Gaddafi more than any other Western leader. It is tempting to wonder what would have happened if he, and not Jacques Chirac, had been in power when George W Bush and Tony Blair invaded Iraq. The answer is probably nothing, for France’s military is easily stretched. It will be interesting to see how strong is stomach is for an extended fight in Libya. The US, despite Barack Obama preferring to take a back stage role, is likely to do most of the heavy lifting in the long run.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/alexs ... ge-w-bush/