The coming months will see a debate over which perspective prevails. The future of far more than a trade agreement hangs in the balance.

When Trade Leads to Tolerance

It is difficult to understate France's importance to Europe -- and to us. For both countries, a strong working relationship is a necessary and important asset.

Mark me down for curiosity and anxiety.

I have seen France at its most tragic in 1940, and I have seen it at its best in later years. Although there will still be differences about Iraq and other issues, I know that France and America need each other strategically, economically, culturally. And beyond that, there is the history buried in the cemetery of Omaha Beach.

We need a relationship built on mutual respect as well as mutual interest.

Perhaps it will be rekindled on Omaha Beach.

The French Connection

Originally published on September 19, 2003.

We were in France last week. Seven old friends. One more reunion while there's time.

High above the valley, on a hill once marked by trenches and shell holes, stands a monument of 24 mighty columns and two heroic-size figures. Their hands are clasped -- a tribute, the inscription tells us, to the French and American troops who fought here, and a lasting symbol of "the friendship and cooperation" between the two countries.

France and America have been allies for a long time now. The sentiment runs deep, despite differences over Iraq today.

Last week, even the Financial Times threw up its hands in despair at Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice.

Don't they know, the paper asked, that "alone the US is far more vulnerable than it likes to believe, while in concert with free nations, it is far more powerful than even it can imagine."

This is something to think about on the battlefields of France. You think about the times we've helped each other, and how we still need each other to confront global terrorism. So you want to celebrate our ties, and nurture them. And that's what we did.

France and America, A Shared History, by Bill Moyers

"Bush might be unpopular in Italy, the Iraqi war is not popular in Italy, but Italians know damn well that in 1944, they were liberated by America from the Nazis," said Franco Pavoncello, a political science professor at John Cabot University in Rome.

Damn straight.

Likewise, Americans should know damn well what the French have done for the United States. Unfortunately, many do not.

American politicans, academics, and combinations thereof like to criticize Arab and Muslim educational systems for their deficiencies. I hope it is not too Democratic of me to suggest that people whose children are taught in glass portables should not throw too many rocks at the stone madrassas, lest they bounce back unexpectedly and disrupt a watered-down, papered-over, PC retelling of American history.

"Berlusconi is not simply pro-Bush, Berlusconi is pro-America," said a close aide. "His sense of gratitude is toward America for what it has done over the past 60 years, in World War II, the Marshall Plan, its role in the NATO alliance, in the cold war and, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in the fight against terrorism."

For Berlusconi, Bush's D-Day Visit Will Add Drama to the Drama