Ah, the slow, sure, decent into paranoia.
Bilow, 1/3 of the French population, in a poll, stated that they hoped Saddam would defeat the US/UK coalition.
Furthermore, TotalFina-Elf lost billions in oil contracts with Saddam's regime and have no interest in seeing US/UK companies be selected over them.
If that's not sufficient cause to be a bit paranoid about what the French are capable of, then maybe you're being a bit naive.
But I'm not stating that France would dare directly intervene against the US/UK coalition. But I do suspect that, given the embarrassment and loss of prestige they have faced in the region, they have every interest in making the rebuilding of Iraq as difficult as possible.
And the fact that France has not "gotten on board" with assisting the new government with direct funds and donations to rebuild the country (via the Madrid conference), is indicative of the stubborness they are displaying in undermining the rebuilding of Iraq.
And as a result, they are setting themselves up for considerable negative opinion from Iraqis in the future.
After all, why should French companies be selected for bids from any new Iraqi government when they failed to show any support.
See if you can find France listed as a donor state in this roster of governmental contributors at Madrid:
unol.org
Hawk |
