Elysian, Indeed

The French were right about Iraq, making them the defenders of Iraqi women, of Iraqi Christians, and of the Iraqi branch of that most Arab of phenomena, the Anglophile middle class. They have a genuine understanding of the Middle East generally, as we used to have before we forgot who our old friends there were. They also assisted those who were fighting against, rather than those who were fighting for, the creation of an Islamist entity, with a heavy nostalgia for Nazism, in part of the former Yugoslavia.

The French provided invaluable intelligence assistance during the Falklands War, when the American Ambassador to the UN, a major neocon heroine, was actively on the other side. They maintain the closest possible ties with their old possessions around the world. They unashamedly act in their own interest. They would never, ever give up their Security Council seat. The Americans take them seriously rather than patting them on the head.

Now, all that we need is the replacement of Sarkozy with a worthy heir of the man who held the line against all four of German occupation, Soviet infiltration, American domination, and the unbalancing of the nascent EU by British accession.