America’s failure to live up to French expectations is a much-cherished French tradition, nearly as old as the United States itself

In an equally leftist screed rebuttal to Dominique Moïsi, Ted Widmer gets it right once in a time:

It has become rather easy to criticize President George W. Bush for the mistakes he made, especially in Paris, where America’s failure to live up to French expectations is a much-cherished local tradition, nearly as old as the United States itself. But to fall into undisciplined thinking about the past risks perpetuating the same mistakes.