It is common in the US to view France as a fading nation. Last week’s carnage in Paris has reminded Americans what they value in their oldest ally. France may suffer from steep unemployment and a sclerotic public sector. It remains an à la carte ally of the US, rather than adopting a British-style prix fixe. But its effective handling of the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo — and the symbolic nature of the target — has invoked something in America’s DNA. “Solidarité” is the cover of the New Yorker against a cartoon of the Eiffel Tower as a pencil — an artful echo of Le Monde’s “We are all Americans” post-9/11 headline. The slogan, “Je Suis Charlie”, may be overblown. But this tragedy has brought out America’s underlying sympathy for France. The more is the pity that no senior US official was able to attend Sunday’s unity demonstration in Paris.
美國人普遍把法國視為一個衰落中的國家。上周巴黎發生的屠殺讓美國人回想起，他們對最長久的盟友法國看重的是什么。法國可能正受困于高失業率和僵化的公共行業。法國仍是美國的一個照單點菜式的盟友（而非英國那樣的鐵桿拍檔）。但是，諷刺雜志《查理周刊》(Charlie Hebdo) 遇襲后法國的高效處理——以及被攻擊目標具有的象征意義——喚醒了美國人基因中的某些東西。最新一期《紐約客》(New Yorker)封面的主題是“團結”，背景是制成埃菲爾鐵塔(Eiffel Tower)卡通形象的一枝鉛筆——巧妙呼應了法國《世界報》(Le Monde)在9/11事件之后“我們都是美國人”的標題?！拔沂遣槔怼?Je suis Charlie)的標語可能有些過頭了。但這場悲劇引出了美國對法國的根本同情。在這一背景下，沒有一位美國高官能夠參加周日在巴黎舉行的團結游行更加令人遺憾。