Waiting for Francois Hollande

What a nice man is this shiny new French President, Francois Hollande. After that dreadful, strutting Sarkozy, you cannot help, mes amis, but feel a warm inner glow whenever you see his homely, smiling face on le TV. The thing is, he cares! He really cares!

Regardez as he wags his finger at the Russians who "hinder the search for a solution" in Syria, and earnestly declares that the bloodletting there is tres "unacceptable and intolerable." (Hollande presses Russia over Syria stance, The Daily Star, 17/7/12)

Regardez his deep sympathy for those who are forever on the verge of being pushed into the [Mediterranean] sea by those who don't exist:

"I intend on visiting Israel soon after I win the elections,' said Hollande in an interview with a French-Jewish news website about a week ago. He promised to fight an all out war against anti-Semitism in France, made it clear that he opposed any form of boycotting Israel, avoided repetitive remarks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and focused on the Iranian issue instead. 'We must be intransigent when it comes to Iran, whose nuclear program is a danger to Israel and world peace,' he said." (Will France's new president Francois Hollande be good for Israel? Barak Ravid, Haaretz, 7/5/12)

Regardez too his recent acknowledgment of past French war crimes:

"French president Francois Hollande has admitted the round-up and deportation of more than 13,000 Jews from Paris during World War II was a 'crime committed in France by France.' At a moving commemoration to mark its 70th anniversary, Mr Hollande praised former president and political rival Jacques Chirac, who in 1995 forced France to face up to its 'dark hours' of Nazi collaboration." (Hollande:we were guilty, The Age, 24/7/12)

What a beautiful man!

So, mes amis, I'm sure it's only be a matter of time before Mister Nice Guy (or Monsieur Petites Blagues (Mr Jokester*) as his devoted people call him) and Friend of Syria acknowledges and commemorates French war crimes committed outside France by France and faces up to France's dark hours of colonial bloodletting... in Syria:

"As pressure [by rebel bands] built on the French forces inside Damascus, military reaction ratcheted up from the comically ineffectual to the staggeringly brutal. Mandate forces tried to deal with [Hasan al-] Kharrat first. On 12 October [1925] a strong force supported by aircraft, tanks, and artillery moved into the Ghuta with a plan to encircle the rebels in the region of al-Zur, which was a heavily wooded area along the river in the eastern Ghuta. Peasants from al-Malayha warned the insurgents of the approach of the French column. The French first pursued Kharrat's band along the banks of the river; though they drew continuous sniper fire, they were unable to bring any rebels into the open. In frustration, they backtracked to the village of al-Malayha, which they looted and burned. The justification for this, intelligence claimed, was that a small boy of the village had alerted the insurgents of the visit of French troops a week earlier. The complicity of the villagers had thus facilitated the capture and humiliation of the earlier French force.

"The French then marched to the village of Jaramana, which they also looted and burned, though aerial and artillery bombardment had mostly destroyed it already. Although they never engaged Kharrat's band in the open, troops executed nearly a hundred villagers in the Ghuta, many of them in their fields and orchards. Mandate soldiers brought their corpses to Damascus as trophies, and they brought a number of prisoners as well. Some of the young male prisoners were publicly shot in Marja Square, the central square of Damascus. Mandate authorities left 16 mutilated corpses on display for most of the day. The dead were 'brigands', and the demolished villages where they had lived were destroyed for the crime of harboring brigands. French troops openly sold their plundered loot in the bazaars." (The Great Syrian Revolt & the Rise of Arab Nationalism, Michael Provence, 2005, pp 101-102)

[*Says his biographer: "Ever since he was a little boy he's used his humor to avoid conflict, to be the good guy, to be friends with everyone, and to avoid questions."]