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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (84535)	3/21/2003 12:13:56 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

The French, now having shut themselves out of the war coalition, are apparently taking the position that the US and Britain, when they win the war, shouldn't get the right to run the post-war transition government, but should turn that over to the international community, i.e. France and Germany. They are still hoping to salvage the benefit of the contracts they signed with Saddam. I hope Bush and Powell are smart enough to give them the finger (diplomatically, of course).

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (84535)	3/21/2003 8:38:56 PM
From: Dennis O'Bell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

The French seem to be acting toward us the way they act with one another during petty jousting among political parties à l'Assemblée Nationale. All the behavior patterns Chirac is displaying are like the internal politics I recall seeing when I lived there. That means they probably don't take it as seriously as we think, and some of the stuff is getting missed in the translation. But there are some real issues behind the rhetoric, such as France losing juicy contracts of one sort or another in Iraq if the US deposes Saddam and imparts un nouvel ordre. But Chirac is kidding himself if he thinks France could have really prevented the US from taking action in Iraq by playing these games once Bush really had it in his head to do. They poke fun at the US for being heavy handed or clumsy in international diplomacy, but ought to look in the mirror themselves.