John Ensign: “It has been asked, What should the United States do to repair our relationship with France? My question is, What should…”

“It has been asked, What should the United States do to repair our relationship with France? My question is, What should France do to repair its relationship with the United States? The United States is attempting to defend itself, to rid the world of a brutal dictator. September 11 changed everything. We all know that. America is vulnerable. America is the only superpower left in the world, which makes us a target. France is taking advantage of the fact that we are the only superpower and, because of that, there are natural sentiments against one country having that much power--even though the United States doesn't go into countries to occupy them. We are going into Iraq to liberate it and rebuild it and then get out. We want to get out of there as soon as possible. We would love to be able to have a stable, democratically elected government there as quickly as possible; have infrastructure put in place and get out of there. We don't want our troops or our personnel, whatsoever, to be potentially in harm's way for any longer than they have to be. So France, in its effort to continue to curry favor with the Saddam Hussein regime, and to continue the trade relations they have, I believe has done something that is very wrong. So I believe France has an obligation to America to try to repair the relationship they have with us. I believe it is up to them to make the first step, and they certainly have not done that--at least up to this point.”