"France responds to its friends"
French President Sarkozy continues to demonstrate his commitment to President Bush's flagging efforts against Iranian domination of the Middle East. Earlier this week, he announced that France will establish a military base in the United Arab Emirates. When it does, France will be the only Western power other than the U.S. to have a permanent defense installation in the Persian Gulf region.
France being France, there is a commercial side to this decision. France sells billions of dollars of arms to the UAE. Thus, when the UAE requested the base, France was receptive to the idea. As Sarkozy put it, "France responds to its friends." Happily, we too are once again among them.
