While there may be some good points about the current ethnic makeup of
the population of France, I think the real reason France does what is
does...is because it's French!

France is just France, it always has been. France has not been exactly
what I'd call a "Western Nation" since post World War II, but their
problem is where they beleive they should be on the world stage...and
in Iraq's business.

They hate the British because the French think they are bourgeois and
stupid (as they think about the U.S.), and the Brits lately have sided
with US World Politics...the French do not like having to listen to
the British/U.S. rhetoric. They hate the Germans because,
well...that's fairly obvious...but they are now the "strange
bedfellows." But both countries have a lot of debt tied up in Iraq,
and their own economies could continue to use the trade boost they
would have if THEY were the preemminent powers dealing with Iraq.

The French want to be in the arena of World Politics on their own
terms, and they do not want to be out of the limelight...it also
doesn't hurt that an incursion into Iraq would distrub the trade they
have established with that country, and the possibility of having the
debt Iraq has with France being repaid...and maybe they sold some
things to Iraq that a lot of folks might not be too pleased about.

Everyone wants in on Iraq's recovery because it's economy is based on
oil which can always produce fast hard currency; but, no one wants the
mess that goes with it. So here we are.

Bottomline: The Coalition invaded, removed Saddam from power, and now
we have a industrialized country with a ravaged infrastructure wrought
not just by the two wars but by years and years of sanctions and gross
mismanagement by Saddam and his cronies. Now who will help the Iraqis
to help themselves out of the hole they are currently in? Who can
afford to help them? Can we afford not to help them?

Simple answer really. It just has to be done, the UN and the EU should
chip in and do their part but the bulk of the aid and assistance will
have to come from the U.S. as usual. Now we could back off a bit on
our rhetoric about the U.S. running the entire show 'casue you get
more bees with honey than with vinegar, yes? So if all involved would
back off their extreme positions just a bit maybe the Iraqi people
might not suffer so much more, and maybe they'd lead us to even more
of these cowards who are running around blowing up cars...although I
think soon the Iraqi people will have had enough of that crap anyway.
The thing is...who will they really blame for the bombings? Us or the
terrorists?

Time will tell.

DJ