Thread by @phl43

I think the conflict with China is stupid and I'd be glad if we stayed out of it, so I don't care that France was excluded from the regional security partnership between the US and Australia, what pisses me off is that this betrayal won't fundamentally affect our foreign policy.

That's why the French government's histrionics at the moment are so embarrassing. There is no point in putting on that show if, in the end, you just go back to business as usual, which is almost certainly what's going to happen. Draw some concrete lessons or shut the fuck up.

The truth is that we have aligned ourselves with the US against our interests time and time again and we're going to continue to do so even after our so-called allies have openly fucked us. I hope that I'm being too pessimistic about this, but I seriously doubt it.

There will be the usual noise about how this shows we need the EU to become strategically independent from the US, which of course is never going to happen, if only because most member states are perfectly happy to live under the American umbrella and don't want responsibilities.

This is just the usual nonsense, but when the dust has settled, we'll go back to follow the US lead in their absurd cold wars against Russia and China (among other things), even though it's contrary to our interests, and if you ask me isn't even in the interests of the US 🤷‍♂️

I basically agree with that, the arguments that it made sense *from an anti-China hawk's perspective* to exclude France are just embarrassing (again that's not my perspective), but it still won't be enough for us to truly rethink our foreign policy.

https://twitter.com/bandedkrait/status/1440036952770629635

I would leave NATO, an organization that has long lost its raison d'être, push for the end of commercial sanctions against Russia by the EU and generally make clear that from now France would be happy to partner with the US but only when in our interests.

https://twitter.com/SignorPallina/status/1440037285177683972

Don't even get me started about the arguments in favor of NATO's continued existence. It's all post-hoc rationalization, premised on ridiculous ideas such as the notion that, if not for NATO, Russia might invade EU members. Anyone who seriously believes that is beyond salvation.