Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from an interview with French Ambassador Francois Delattre.
From: WFIN.com
By LOU WILIN
The storied French-American alliance, which helped America win independence and rescued France in World War II, is better than ever, French Ambassador Francois Delattre said Wednesday in Findlay.
That’s quite a turnaround from 10 years ago, when the comradeship frayed over France’s refusal to join the Iraq war. Only 39 percent of Americans polled then considered France a close ally and friend, Delattre said. Today, 78 percent of Americans polled regard France that way, he said.
“And it fits with the reality,” Delattre said in a University of Findlay program. “If you look at the reality, we are together on every single important issue.”
Take terrorism: France and the U.S. are “each other’s closest allies in the fight against terrorism,” he said.
France’s recent military campaigns against al-Qaida in Africa are much larger than the American press has reported, he said.
“We had to fight there against some of the best-trained, best-equipped, best-funded branches of al-Qaida in the world based on years of drug trafficking, human trafficking, weapons, cigarette smuggling,” Delattre said.
