'When people are dying, you must come back from vacation'

My Orchids. Oncidium "Leading from Behind".
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'When people are dying, you must come back from vacation': French foreign minister seems to slam Obama for golfing while Iraq burns

The quote from French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, originally in French, cannot be well rendered in English. What Fabius said is: «Quand des gens meurent, j'allais dire qui crèvent, on rentre de vacances». He took the verb "meurent", die, to another level, "crèvent", which means to die in absolute misery like an animal. He shows anger at the world's inaction, and you cannot blame France for inaction on the world scene.

He did not explicitly call upon the US President to blame him for inaction, but on the European Foreign Ministers. However trust the clever diplomat: implicitly it was France returning General Powell's comment: "Europe, whom to call?" If not Victoria Nuland's harsher words. Fabius is saying: "Washington, anyone home?" 

Europe starts realizing that they are on their own, that the US is retracting into more isolationism. Someone will fill in the void, and Europe is struggling, just as it did in 1948.