Is Nicolas Sarkozy the 'new George W. Bush'?

Jokes about French cowardice seem out of date after the French president's muscular moves in Libya and Ivory Coast

With military pushes in both Libya and the Ivory Coast, France's Nicolas Sarkozy seems to have a growing appetite for international intervention.
(Image credit: Corbis)

In 2003, France's opposition to George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq so infuriated U.S. conservatives that they renamed the innocent french fry. But "freedom fries" have been off the menu since Nicolas Sarkozy became France's president. Now, the French are leading the charge in Libya and Ivory Coast, and it's the French leader who's getting the Bush-like reputation as a foreign policy cowboy. Is Sarkozy taking over where Bush left off?

Yes, Sarkozy is the new Bush: First, Sarkozy went after Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, says Alex Spillius in The Telegraph, and then he plowed into Ivory Coast. The man clearly has a "growing appetite for muscular intervention." And Sarkozy sounds a lot like Bush when he justifies his actions, by speaking of "France's role as a shaper of history and a protector of liberty and democracy. Who is running the freedom agenda now?"

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