Hu-Ho...

C'était l'affaire de sa carrière. The whole world had to be informed that Cyrus Vance jr was incorruptible and that America is the land where justice is equally distributed with no distinction between the poor and the rich, white and colored immigrant people etc. So he didn't hesitate to treat the rich white man like he was guilty before any investigation, he had him paraded with the infamous perp walk and his first appearance in a court of justice was filmed by TV cameras so that billions of people around the world be convinced what an utterly abject and despicable person Dominique Strauss-Kahn was.

But after some weeks, he had to admit there were some hitches in the case and consequently he gave the world an image of the U.S that again may not be so flattering. American self inflicted wound?

There is this article this morning in the NYT about a resurgence of dormant anti-Americanism in France due to the way Strauss-Kahn's name has been sullied in an unspeakable manner. I for one don't think there's any resurgence of the kind Steven Erlanger mentions. Rather, I'd be more inclined to believe that old clichés and stereotypes have been reinforced once again. But are the French responsible for this sorry state of affair?

Now, to be fair, I have to say that, had this incident happened in France, it would have taken months -if not years- before the French judiciary system would very reluctantly have admitted a minor mistake may possibly have been committed. 

Just last week a man was declared innocent after he spent 9 years in jail because a 13 year old girl falsely accused him of rape.

All French people know of the horrendous Outreau miscarriage of justice which took place some years ago. Like seems to have been the case with Cyrus Vance jr, the French judge swallowed the story made by the female accuser hook, line and sinker.

Stories like these are countless in France and the French are totally disgusted with their judiciary system and its judges, make no mistake about it.

Contrary to how things unfurl in France where judges never ever admit they made any mistake, one must give credit to C. Vance jr that he basically let understood he made some errors in his handling of the case. He certainly would have spared himself the embarrassment had he been less eager to make a publicity stunt for the sake of his career...

But too late. Le mal est fait and his reckless conduct has given another bad rap to the image of the U.S the world over.