I always wonder why these French leaders don't understand that France wins nothing by sitting on the fence while the Americans and the British get the job done around the world. France loses the opportunity to contribute to change the world for better.
Because slowly, but surely, Iraq is becoming a parlamentary democracy. They have had several elections already and their citizens are getting used to vote. There's turmoil in the country, but mostly from terrorists attacks, terrorists that have, for the most part, lost support from the population and are relying more and more on foreign palestinian, jordanian, syrian and iranian recruits, among other people from around the world.
But the Americans are learning their ways too, and are getting savvy about dealing with their kind of warfare, in the process, the Americans also gain some powerful expertise that no other army in the world, except for the israelii, have got today.
But what will the French have to say when, 5 or 10 years from now, Iraq becomes a fully democratic, peaceful and stable democracy? This is not wishful thinking, the most powerful factions in power in Iraq are not the terrorists, but the parties that dominate their assembly, and they are learning to build political alliances among them, the Shiites with the Kurds and some Sunnis as well. They all represent the great mayority of iraquiis, and they all want and will have a stable and democratic Iraq.
What will they tell to the new free and forward-looking iraquies about their opposition to overthrow Saddam Hussein? Had the French government had their way, Saddam will surely still be in power, ever getting stronger with the ever growing income of billions of dollars coming from the rise in oil prices around the world, buying more sophisticated weapons and building defense alliances with more dictatorial regimes, the likes of China, Korea, Russia, just like Iran is doing now.