WASHINGTON -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and some of his Pentagon associates appear to be on a private vendetta against France. The Pentagon has not denied, and may even have planted, false rumors that France helped some members of Saddam Hussein's government escape Iraq during the recent war.
More recently, Rumsfeld has canceled France's normal participation in the "Red Flag" air combat training exercises, downgraded the two countries' joint appearances in air shows and, according to some reports, even threatened to disinvite France from maritime sanctions enforcement operations in the Arabian Sea near Afghanistan. And the idea of any French participation in stabilization efforts inside Iraq has been anathema to the Pentagon.
Given how much France's military and intelligence services help the United States globally, in the war on terror and other missions, this type of petty retaliation is unwise. It amounts to cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. It should stop.