Macron 'Slams' US for Breaching Law, Forgetting France's Own History
French President Emmanuel Macron, we are told by Bloomberg, is shocked — shocked! — that the US would breach international law by seizing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and threatening Greenland. (One might wonder why Maduro's 'capture' garners more outrage than, say, a decade of sanctions crippling an entire nation, but I digress.) This sudden concern for sovereignty from a nation whose
historical portfolio includes everything from Algeria to Vietnam, and whose contemporary actions still prop up neo-colonial structures across Africa, is truly…breathtaking. Perhaps Macron's outrage would be more convincing if France hadn't, for example, maintained a military presence in multiple former colonies for decades post-independence, or if its government didn't routinely intervene in the
internal affairs of West African nations through economic and political levers. The grand pronouncements sound a little hollow when your own nation’s hands aren’t exactly clean of 'breaching international law' in its pursuit of influence and resources. How many times must the Global South be reminded that rules are for thee, not for me?