We had been respecting the thawing of relations between America and France.  Heck, we even stopped calling those things Freedom Fries and went back to the real name, Death Sticks.

But today all those warm fuzzy feelings are doused by a cold bucket of reality water.  In its story today about the killing of top Hezbollah terrorist Imad Mughniyah, the Washington Post reminds us of a reason to hate the French — a reason we had long since, and quite regrettably, forgotten.  But now it all comes back.  And it goes like this:

In one of the more dramatic episodes, Lebanese officials, exploiting a monitored telephone call, traced Mughniyah to Paris in 1985, only five months after the hijacking of a TWA jetliner, to which he had been linked. He was staying at the Hotel de Crillon, a luxurious hotel across the street from the U.S. Embassy. Tipped off by the Lebanese, U.S. officials asked French police to arrest him and turn him over. Instead, as previously reported in The Washington Post, French agents met with him several times over a six-day period, according to a source closely involved, and worked out an agreement to release him in return for the freedom of a French hostage.

Game back on!  Vive la hatred!