Goodness gracious. We cats had no idea that our fellow Americans loved the French so much. Is it that we all secretly dream of ourselves as Bogie and Bergman in a Paris cafe? We're not sure, but it's mighty curious.
See, we remember a time — not so long ago — when our fellow citizens, whipped up into a warmongering frenzy by the Bush-Cheney liars, slandered the French people as "cheese-eating surrender monkeys." A prominent French restaurant in our then-neighborhood was forced to hang a large American flag in their window or probably go out of business. Oh, and just for good measure, the enlightened hockey fans of South Florida lustily booed the Montreal Canadiens at a Panthers game because the True North had also refused to take part in the invasion of Iraq. (And their name was kinda French, ya know. Quel horreur!)
Now, however, a series of horrific attacks has taken place in the City of Light, and the Republicans are up in arms — well, not literally, but they think someone should be. (Bill Kristol, that storied military hero, called for 50,000 troops to fight ISIL on the ground.) The media are going overboard, too, just like after 9/11. And sadly, a whole passel of (mostly GOP) governors are saying ixnay to any Syrian refugees. Never mind that those desperate people are fleeing the very same criminals who slaughtered folks in Paris on Friday night.
It's so striking to us cats how we Westerners couldn't care less about atrocities unless they're happening to people of non-color or non-Muslimish religions. We are pleased that the new government of Canada appears to be bucking the hawkish trend by continuing with its plan to resettle 25,000 Syrian victims of ISIL by year's end. But we have little hope that the refugees' fate will survive the posturing and the screaming and the blaming that currently make up the American political process.
Meanwhile, we're waiting to see how many GOP Presidential candidates will take it upon themselves to tell John Kerry, "Hey, sorry for saying back in 2004 that you 'looked French.'" Funny how the Republicans just use these events for their own ends, rather than try to approach them in a reasoned, thoughtful manner. But then, they're not capable of any thought at all these days, are they? Which, because these foreign-policy questions are so damned serious and scary, makes us HISS.
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