Since France has taken on the role of Defender of International Morality, perhaps some other actions taken in the past few days will shed light on the sort of actions it considers to be exemplars of How Nations Should Act.
First off, we have the case of Robert Mugabe, the butcher/dictator of Zimbabwe, who has been formally banned from entering the EU (his assets there have also been frozen). That ban is up for renewal next week.
The French, though, are convinced that Mugabe’s being able to attend a meeting of African Heads of State held in Paris will “help promote justice, human rights and democracy in his country.” To that end, they’ve invited Mugabe to France, to arrive the day after the current sanctions end.
Meanwhile, France is still officially peeved over Libya’s involvement in the bombing of a French aircraft over Niger in 1989. That wasn’t enough to keep them from voting no when Libya was being elected to the rotating leadership of the UN Commission on Human Rights. That’s because Libya had the support of most African states, and, after all, a lot of Africans died in the plane crash, too.
So, rather than vote yes or now, they simply abstained.
Moral Leadership indeed.
(via InstaPundit)
And since everyone else seems to be linking to it, may I present, The Axis of Weasel.