ABSTRACT
After the end of the Cold War the United States (US) did move towards more clearly and seriously promoting democracy worldwide. But then the Global War on Terror again highlighted US support for non-democratic states, such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan as allies against Jihadism. The huge trade with the Communist government in China is also maintained usually without much attention to human rights issues. In all the Anglo-Sphere countries, and elsewhere, the political Left either supported the Islamists or resisted policies designed to destroy them. This was deeply rooted in the Left's anti-Americanism, but was extended by the small Left component in the Iraqi insurgency and the adoption of leftist slogans by the Jihadists themselves. The French government was led by the rightist former Gaullist. President Jacques Chirac who maintained the basic tenets of Gaullism including national and European independence from the US. The differences between France and the US were principally over the invasion of Iraq.
