So said new President of France Nicolas Sarkozy, in a speech to the Congress yesterday.  Sarkozy, who stunned pundits and liberal media types by winning his election as a Pro-America conservative, eloquently enunciated why there could be great love and respect between our two countries: 

“…Ladies and gentlemen, the men and women of my generation heard their
grandparents talk about how in 1917, America saved France at a time when it
had reached the final limits of its strength, which it had exhausted in the
most absurd and bloodiest of wars.  The men and women of my generation
heard their parents talk about how in 1944, America returned to free Europe
from the horrifying tyranny that threatened to enslave it.

“…France will never forget the sacrifice of your children.  To those 20-
year-old heroes who gave us everything, to the families of those who never
returned, to the children who mourned fathers they barely got a chance to
know, I want to express France’s eternal gratitude.  …I want to tell you
that whenever an American soldier falls somewhere in the world, I think of
what the American army did for France.  I think of them and I am sad, as
one is sad to lose a member of one’s family.

“…It is this ambitious France that I have come to present to you today.  A
France that comes out to meet America to renew the pact of friendship and
the alliance that Washington and Lafayette sealed in Yorktown.  Together
let us be worthy of their example, let us be equal to their ambition, let
us be true to their memories!  Long live the United States of America!”