Friends, and Schadenfreude -'Magic is over' for U.S., says French foreign minister

Let me first postulate that anyone who finds the words coming out their mouths that negotiating with HAMAS is a good idea, is delusional, so take this for what it's worth.

IHT-

PARIS: Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister of France and a longtime humanitarian, diplomatic and political activist on the international scene, says that whoever succeeds President George W. Bush may restore something of the United States' battered image and standing overseas, but that "the magic is over."

In a wide-ranging conversation with Roger Cohen of the International Herald Tribune at the launch of a Forum for New Diplomacy in Paris, Kouchner on Tuesday also held out the hope of talking with Hamas, the Palestinian faction that rules the Gaza Strip but has been ostracized by the West and by its Palestinian rival, Fatah, because it opposes peace talks with Israel and denies that Israel has a right to exist.

To achieve what end? Only no Israel can be an outcome of negotiating with HAMAS. Negotiating a ceasefire changes NOTHING except the terminal date of the conflict. Thoughts that while a ceasefire exists somethign good may happen are fantasies for children

Asked whether the United States could repair the damage it has suffered to its reputation during the Bush presidency and especially since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Kouchner replied, "It will never be as it was before."

"I think the magic is over," he continued, in what amounted to a sober assessment from one of the strongest supporters in France of the United States.

No, it amounts to an envy ridden glee, and hope, from at heart a nation that never got over being rescued twice from it's own stupidities by a nation with no culture, and little history. If we are despised it's by the kind of nation which can't wait to get to Durban II to make obeisance at the feet of racists of the most ancient kind whose position in this world is temporarily vouchsafed by the geographical position of plants, millions of years old. The feelings of that kind of world were made quite clear when the UN vote on Iraq came down to Cameroon. Long before anyone knew Iraq had fooled the world on WMD and long before Abu Ghreib.

U.S. military supremacy endures, Kouchner noted, and the new president "will decide what to do - there are many means to re-establish the image." But even that, he predicted, "will take time."

Kouchner began the 90-minute event with a speech that emphasized that "there is not just a new diplomacy; there is a new world."

What is he actually saying? American decline creates a new world? I think so. Perhaps Sarkozy is not what he appears to have been presented as, or as we would like to see him, or Kouchner needs to be watched.

Asked whether there is a way to engage Hamas, which is supported by a significant minority of Palestinians, Kouchner appeared to hold out hope of contact, saying: "I'm looking for a diplomatic way to say yes."

For what purpose? Not peace. They are quite plain about that, and without any embarrassment in saying so.

Kouchner is the founder of Doctors Without Borders. Perhaps humanitarians have little place in creating and implementing foreign policy, being guided by principles which victimize their own peoples at the hands of those who act with untrammeled consciences.