Punish France? - II

I've been following the "Punish France" brigade since I first posted a piece on it. It would appear that our government is going to take the wrong approach with turning the screws on Paris.

Staying out of the Paris Air Show is an acceptable idea. Sure, it puts as at a disadvantage with countries that only buy at Paris, but you got to admit, the Baghdad Air Show had some pretty successful sales demonstrations of our aviation capabilities. Anyone who wants to know how good our aircraft are need only ask Saddam.

Same with the Iraqi Desert Tank Trials. They produced an excellent sales campaign for both the Abrahms and the Bradley. How many third world despots are scrambling around trying to raise money for some used Soviet T-55s or T-72s? Probably not too many with aspirations of tweaking the US.

So, why after such a great example of our equipment's capabilities are we pressuring nations to buy the Abrahms over the French LeClerc? Why are we trying to convince them of the superiority of the F-15 and F-16 over the Mirage?

All of the potential buyers in the world know the capabilities and features of each tank. The Abrahms is battle tested and survivable in the event that someone gets lucky. The LeClerc comes with a built in "quick surrender" flag, ready to be deployed at the push of a button. The Abrahms has a motion-stabilized gun that can hit a target while rolling over sand dunes at 40 mph. The LeClerc has a gun that is permanently mounted facing down and to the rear - for safety reasons. The Abrahms is great for taking the fight to the enemy. The LeClerc is great for taking the fight to the weasels (also works great on fire ants and moles!).

A similar list of comparisons could be made for the aviation products, but I really don't want to take up that much space.

We need to be careful who we let buy French military products. If the Saudis want to buy the LeClerc, let them. We're probably going to have a little skirmish with them at some point anyway. If they have Abrahms, the risk of friendly fire casualties goes way up. If they have the LeClerc there is at least a differentiation of looks. Plus, our soldiers can pretend that they're fighting against the French Army. If we can't invade France for "geo-political" reasons, this could be the next best thing.

Unfortunately our government has failed to recognize the opportunity to quietly punish the French. A few pictures could have made a more powerful, and less inflammatory, statement than that made by Evan Galbraith or even Colin Powell.

Sometimes subtlety is the best offense.