Just in case everyone wasn't clear that France has always considered itself to be a key backer of Saddam Hussein and his followers, and still does...
France said Monday that it would take part in a proposed international conference on Iraq only if the agenda included a possible U.S. troop withdrawal. Paris also wants representatives of Iraq's insurgent groups (you know, the Ba'athists and Beheaders Brigades) to be invited.
Banagor has the news links, plus a funny "10 Point French Roadmap to Surrender." Which is about all that France's foreign policy of siding with terrorists and thugs (Iraq, Sudan, Zimbabwe), and doing sweetheart oil deals on the side (Iraq, Sudan), deserves.
UPDATE: As Michael Totten notes, French & German policy is consistent and will not change regardless of who is in the White House. See esp. the German officials' quotes.
How nostalgic for Kerry. If he's elected, he might get his very own Paris Accords!
I feel sick.
Okay, okay. It sounds bad.
But it may be that Sistani and tribal leaders are working behind the scenes on their own plans to bring in Arab peacekeepers and kick out the Americans. Read all about it here.
Well we took Vietnam off Frances hands, I say we give them Iraq and call it even.
France is the West's political prostitute. Her standards are measured in francs and flashy fashions, but she's dying of moral AIDS and is highly infectious.
Trip;
truly a stoopid comment. 'Grats.
The situation in France is evolving and I’m pretty sure that the distance between the anti-American position of Chirac and part of his government is meeting an increasing opposition from a younger and decidedly Atlantist sector whose leader would be Nicolas Sarkozy… a very strong candidate to be France’s next president. Sarkozy’s position was mildly critical of the intervention in Iraq (more out of concerns of opportunity than anything else) and he has avoided carefully to side with Chirac’s hysterical anti-Americanism, conspicuously traveling to Chicago and meeting with the US Jewish community, not to speak of his synchrony with former Spanish prime minister Jose M. Aznar.
The problem is that one part of the French elite have been selling their anti-American line with a geo-political rationale that is still a sacrosanct part of the French media’s Book of Truth, while Sarkozy believes more in what I call the Little Satan theory, i.e. France isn’t perceived by the jihadists as a potential ally against the Great Satat; it’s just a Little Satan too afraid to fight. If you want to read more about the Little Satan theory, you may click here: FRANCE AND THE WAR
The French Government (FG) strikes me as an organization that simply wasn't bought off. If the USG had paid the FG enough, they likely would have gone along with the show. The USG, in a rare wise move, determined that purchasing French (and Russian) assistance wasn't worth the price they were asking. All the rest seems like diplomatic BS. I'm sure that for the right price the FG will "grudgingly admit the need to participate in a multilateral force in the interests of world stability" or some such garbage.
The French position is the same as a number of countries. Negotiation and conciliation will solve everything.
To suggest that there needs to be a conference on Iraq at this stage is ridiculous. Any conference will be designed provide a level of legitimancy to insurgents that the do not deserve and slow down the election process in Iraq.
The interim government should proceed with efforts to hold elections in January.