How Israel Went From ‘Model Ally’ to Cautionary Tale

Early in 2003, with the US still in shock over Al Qaeda’s 9/11 terrorist attacks, Washington called on allies to join it in going to war with Iraq. Some answered the call, but not France, which argued forcefully against invading. Americans were so outraged by this show of disloyalty that an old Simpsons meme describing the French as “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” became common enough to make the Oxford Dictionary.

With hindsight, France’s then-president Jacques Chirac was America’s best ally. He foresaw the coming debacle and tried to protect the White House from it, drawing on his personal experience as a lieutenant in the French military as it tried to keep control of Algeria in the 1950s. I’m reminded of that episode as a new version of the “surrender monkey” narrative takes hold in Washington today.