Still though, pressure on America's misdeeds need to be maintained. With blame placed on the guilty. Obama's message team are adults, and when they're worried enough about something like this, they know how to clarify the situation. In my old anthropology class, I learned something that rang so true I haven't forgotten it for almost 40 years: status and prestige in any society (and this is as close as you get to a law of nature in the social sciences) isn't conferred - it's earned, and the holder must periodically reaffirm his fitness for the prestige he holds. Obama must continue with policies that reflect the high-mindedness his campaign trumpeted and which the world continues to expect of him. He must do this just to maintain his legitimacy.

Now that Jerome has spoken, one can justifiably claim that the French regard American security policy in its war on terror with the gravest regard. Hopefully, the French government will begin to reflect the attitudes of it's constituency and transmit this concern/displeasure/alarm to Washington.

Hopefully.

"It Can't Be Just About Us"
--Frank Schnittger, ETian Extraordinaire