Monday, October 06, 2008

The Perils of Translating

Poor French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

His French got in the way.

Here's the Haaretz story, as it appeared:

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner dismisses the idea that even one
nuclear bomb makes the Iranians immune to attack, he told Haaretz in
an interview Friday.

"I honestly don't believe that it will give any immunity to Iran. First, because you will eat them before. And this is the danger. Because Israel has always said that it will not wait for the bomb to be ready. I think that they [the Iranians] know. Everybody knows," he said.


As my good friend RA wrote me,

Kouchner's English is pretty awful and he has a very strong accent. What really he said was "you will hit them before..." not "eat" them!!

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