Now Sarkozy stands at the fore of a coalition of the willing battling
Col. Muammar Qadhafi in Libya, where French planes fired the first shots Saturday. And while the U.S. is
providing military heft, Obama has gladly
surrendered the limelight and, perhaps, a measure of control to a French leader with very different ambitions and interests.
“France has decided to assume its role, its role before history,” Sarkozy announced, as his country’s warplanes opened the attack on
Qadhafi’s forces.
And from that moment on, in a very real way, Obama was betting the success of this unexpected and controversial
North African intervention on the constancy and competence of a French colleague who could hardly be more different than the deliberate and cautious former senator from Illinois.
Sarkozy’s stamp on the conflict has been unmistakable. Cable news in the U.S. on Monday featured the celebrity philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, an unexpected Sarkozy ally, barking praise for the French president at a CNN anchor and elated Libyan opposition fighters shouting, “Merci, Sarkozy.”
Nicolas Sarkozy?s war - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com
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