Fred "know nothing" Barnes:

In an editorial in The Weekly Standard mostly devoted to encouraging Bush to continue a hard-line foreign policy, The Tempting of the President, Fred Barnes has this to say: (emphasis added)

The United States has allowed France to exert influence that far exceeds its economic or military strength. One source of this power, France's U.N. veto, will be curtailed quite naturally as Bush turns away from the U.N. as a vehicle for American foreign policy. But it will take boldness to dash French power in another arena, the G8 summit of industrialized democracies. The G8 is antiquated. Neither France nor Canada has an economy that warrants membership. What's needed is a new organization that includes representatives of the dollar (U.S.), yen (Japan), pound (Great Britain), and euro (Germany), plus Italy and nations with rising economies (India, China, Russia).

We are amazed that so many people consider France to be some sort of extremely minor country. It's not. Here, for example, are the military and economic figures for the countries mentioned by Barnes: (source CIA World Factbook, except for Russia military)

by GDP
country	GDP $ trillions	military $ billions
United States	$10.08	$300.0
China	$6.00	$55.0
Japan	$3.55	$40.7
India	$2.66	$12.0
Germany	$2.18	$38.8
France	$1.54	$46.5
United Kingdom	$1.52	$31.7
Italy	$1.43	$20.2
Russia	$1.27	$50.0
Canada	$0.92	$7.8

Since when did 6^th place disqualify a country for membership in the G8?

posted by Quiddity at 4/14/2003 03:19:00 AM