Last night, Stephen Colbert quipped "Ceci n'est pas un peace-keeping force" about France's failure to institute a peace-keeping force in Lebanon. Initially France pledged the bulk of the 15,000-strong force which along with the Lebanese army would: (a) eradicate Hizbullah in southern Lebanon, (b} create a lasting peace between Lebanon and Israel or (c) leave after several soldiers had been killed by Hizbullah/ Israel/ friendly fire and leave the Lebanese army to do what is wasn't able to do/ didn't want to do in the past twenty years. If you picked c, you are clearly not a member of the UN or the EU. In any event they have only contributed 2000 soldiers.
Magritte painted a picture of a pipe and labelled it Ceci n'est pas une pipe (this is not a pipe). Because in semiotic language, it is not a pipe, but a representation of a pipe.
In the same way that France has not created a peace-keeping force, so much as it has created a farce of a peace-keeping force. Farce, along with cheese-eating and surrender, is France's true talent.
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