Don Surber brings the news that French President Nicholas Sarkozy has stood up to Syria: “After meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Sarkozy cut off diplomatic relations with the Syria over Syrian interference in Lebanon,” Don writes.

The BBC adds that Sarkozy said that “[l]Links will be restored only when France has proof that Syria is not blocking progress towards installing a consensus president in Lebanon.” Instead of talking the talk, Syria must now walk the walk.

It’s refreshing to see a strong leader of France telling rogue regimes that enough is enough. This hasn’t happened for a long time, at least not under Chirac and probably not this convincingly and tough quite some time before Chirac became President either. Sarkozy has proven to be everything European conservatives hoped he would be: tough, determined, pro-American, pro-free market, stubborn. He has stood up to the Unions in the France - which have a lot of power and influence - and he now stands up to rogue regimes in the Middle East. As far as I can tell, it won’t be long until we’ve got something of a Paris-Washington D.C. axis, complimented by countries like the Netherlands, Italy (if Berlusconi makes a comeback) and perhaps (but to a lesser degree) Germany.

O, and then there’s Britain of course: the Tories do better in the polls than Labor. It could very well be, therefore, that they’ll be in power after the next elections. Tories obviously tend to side more with the US than Laborites, so that’s a great sign. There really seems to be a conservative revolution taking place in Europe right now. Very hopeful.

If Sarkozy keeps this up, he could become the unofficial leader of Europe. He should focus on the Middle East, of course, but he should also try to make France’s position in the EU stronger. Smaller European countries have been waiting for one of the bigger countries to truly take the lead. Under Sarkozy, France could fill the power gap.

Susan Duclos comments: “Syria has been a destabilizing force for Lebanon and Sarkozy, Bush and other leaders of the international community seem to be fed up with Syria saying one thing then doing another.”

LawHawk: “It’s as strong a position as has been taken by France in a good long time. However, it may not nearly be sufficient to deal with Assad and the thugs who act as his proxy in Lebanon, including Hizbullah.”

Roger L. Simon: “Sarko for President… des Etats-Unis. I’m serious. I’d vote for him, if I could. Isn’t he a more vibrant leader than anybody running in our election? Let’s be honest. And now he has the cojones to suspend relations with Syria over the Baathist’s interference in the Lebanese election. Okay, even if we can’t elect Sarkozy, we should elect the person best able to work with him, because he is so much more creative and fearless than any of our politicians.”