Ivory Coast Mess

France has quite a mess on its hands in Cote d'Ivoire.

On the one hand, it still has plenty of nationals in the place and feels some obligation to protect them with the troops it still has there. On the other hand, the current government is, for the most part, racist and corrupt, and the uprising in the west and the north is in response to the government's policies of racial exclusion -- so France's defense of its nationals seems hardly distinguishable from defense of a corrupt government, and reminds lots of folks of the good old days of colonial rule.

I've (over) simplified the mess, but that's the gist of it. I've done it so that I might suggest that the next time the French weenies feel the need to lecture the U.S. on its foreign policy, it might be nice for American diplomats to point out their own conflicted mess of a foreign policy in a place as inconsequential to world affairs as Cote d'Ivoire.

Of course, we should call it Ivory Coast just to piss them off further.

[Posted at 13:42 CST on 01/04/03] [Link]