If I recall correctly, the current leftist narrative in vogue (it's hard to keep track of these things, since they're spinning wildly, reversing at will in wild acts of collective amnesia) is that Bush went to war because he wanted to support his "friends" in the defense industry. (Used to be oil, right?)

France, on the other hand, opposed our horrible militaristic expansionism because, well, because they're just more moral. And their populace is more moral. And better informed -- not brainwashed by the (leftists allege) Bush-compliant, corporatist right-wing media (CNN, Fox, PBS, you know, that sort of thing). French public opinion is much better informed.

I know this because my European francophile friends have told me so!

Imagine Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and the Carlyle Group controlled major news outlets like CNN, PBS, Fox News, Time and Newsweek, and were also closely linked with the Bush administration. Can you imagine the field day leftists (and indeed, even I) would have with this situation? Or what the anti-American elements the international community would have made of this?

Yet, strangely, that's the situation in France, not the US:

The French defense industry's hold on the news media is set to grow even tighter as Brussels has announced its approval of French defense and aeronautics contractor Dassault's buying back a significant portion of media conglomerate Socpresse, taking its shares in the company from 30% to 82%...

Socpresse controls 70 publications in France including conservative daily Le Figaro and anti-Lance Armstrong publication L'Express. All in all, 70% of all French newspapers are in the hands of two weapons manufacturers. Defense and aeronautics contractor Lagardère owns the Hachette publishing empire, which is the world's largest magazine publisher and the tenth largest publisher and which owns, to name but a few examples, the magazines Paris Match (which recently scored a soft-ball interview with president Bush) and Elle and the radio station Europe 1. Hachette Filipacchi Médias claims to own 238 titles in 36 countries, which publish a billion copies and over 130,000 pages of paid advertising every year. The company also owns 40% of Editis, Vivendi Universal's publishing outfit.

Frence military expansionism is driving the EU, and will soon control 70% of public opinion. With it's poor economic policies, Europe's going to have to have a threatening enemy to justify increased defense spending. What external enemy do you think they'll find? China? The United States? With France recently making militaristic overtures to China, I think the answer's obvious.

With increased consolidation of the media, French elites will be able to sell this line of thinking to other EU member states.

Things are bad.

They will get worse.

... Your dose of daily cheer from Random Observations. :-)