Charlemagne would be proud

There's been recent talk in the US that their diplomatic strategy towards the Moscow-Berlin-Paris alliance that created so much trouble for them at the UN before the Iraq war was to continue to cultivate Pootie-Poot while forgiving the Germans and therefore isolating those annoying French as the US's only enemy in Europe. Now comes a sign that this is going to be rather difficult, because the Paris-Berlin love-in is moving faster than many would have believed.

There is an EU summit in Brussels this week, but Chancellor Gerhard and his ex-hippy Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer are needed in Berlin for a close parliamentary vote on Friday. So who will represent Germany on the Friday in Brussels? -- Jacques Chirac. As the London Times puts it:

In his absence, Herr Schröder will entrust the defence of Germany's national interests to M Chirac.

One assumes that Chirac won't do anything rash, like giving Alsace-Lorraine back to the Germans, or alternatively decide that it really is time that France got back Charlemagne's powerbase at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle). Maybe the US will decide to up the ante by entrusting its affairs to Britain at the next G7 summit. A surprising number of Americans might actually support that.