re: #34 goddamnedfrank

Dominique Strauss-Kahn. His accuser wasn’t of ideal character either, but arresting and charging him was the right thing to do given the facts available at the time. In any event in the end he turned out to be a real creep, faces charged in his own country for aggravated pimping. Despite the short term anger over the incident our relationship with France wasn’t permanently damaged by the arrest and attempted prosecution.

Removing the blast barriers from the embassy was a really despicable and fucked up reaction by the Indian government. They’re basically saying that us accusing and arresting one consular official calls for lowering the safety of an entire embassy in response. If this is the hill they want to die on then let them, in the end they need us a lot more than we need them.

To play Devil’s Advocate though, in the case of Strauss-Kahn the actual criminal charge filed was of the sort of gravity that we normally would hold a consular official (save for an actual consul, since they have full immunity). Moreover, he was not in New York on diplomatic business at the time, so his lack of even customary immunity was clear-cut.

Lastly, there was never the danger of France overreacting in the way India may do. For all its anti-American verbiage, France doesn’t have the neuroses that India has.